Kolkata, May 18 (IANS) The Bihar government’s announcement of a two per cent increase in the dearness allowance for its employees and the Mamata government’s low compensation amount for the families of the Operation Sindoor martyrs has given the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in West Bengal a chance to raise questions.

The LoP, Suvendu Adhikari, on Sunday, attacked the Mamata government by comparing payment structures of the two neighbouring states under various heads.

The Bihar government, with the announcement, matches the amount with that of the Central government employees at 55 per cent. Following this, the LoP attacked the Bengal government by comparing payment structures of the two neighbouring states under various heads.

According to Adhikari, whether in terms of dearness allowance payments or the compensation for the families of martyrs in Operation Sindoor, Bihar is way ahead of the West Bengal government.

According to him, while the state government employees are now entitled to a dearness allowance payment at the rate of 55 per cent, which is equal to the amount received by the Central government employees, their counterparts are receiving the same at just 18 per cent.

Recently, a division bench of the Supreme Court directed the West Bengal government to immediately pay 25 per cent of the accrued dearness allowance dues to the state government employees, which is expected to result in an immediate drain-out of around Rs 12,000 crore or slightly less than that from the state exchequer.

The LoP also pointed out the difference in compensation payments made by the Bihar and West Bengal governments to the families of the martyrs in Operation Sindoor from their respective states.

“While the West Bengal government paid just Rs 10 lakhs to the family of the martyr in Operation Sindoor from the state, the Bihar government has announced compensation of Rs 50 lakhs for the families of the martyrs in the same operation for that state,” the Adhikari has pointed out.

Economists, too, feel that the hike in the dearness allowance payments is an example of the financial prudence on the part of the Bihar government, even though the state is dry, and an important component of excise collection is missing. On the contrary, in West Bengal, the state excise is the second highest component of its tax revenue collection. The state excise contributes over 20 per cent of the total collection under the head of its own tax revenue.

–IANS

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