Kolkata, June 27 (IANS) With less than 12 hours left for meeting the Supreme Court’s deadline for the West Bengal government to clear 25 per cent pending dearness allowance (DA) to current and retired state government employees, legal challenges loom large.

The actual deadline is midnight on June 29. However, considering that June 28 and June 29 are state government holidays, the deadline will be midnight on June 27.

With Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee busy at Digha in East Midnapore district of West Bengal in the Ratha Yatra programme of the Lord Jagannath Temple there, a last-moment notification before announcing payment of 25 per cent dues has become even more uncertain.

The United Forum of State Government employees, the umbrella body of the state government employees spearheading the movement on the issue, had claimed that if the state government finally does not issue any notification, it should be ready to face legal battles, including contempt of court, in the matter.

“We will be waiting till Friday midnight. We will announce our detailed plans on Saturday if the notification does not surface. The state government employees, both current and retired, have shown enough patience. They will be holding patience till Saturday morning. We are not disclosing our detailed plans right now. All I can now is that if the state government does honour the Apex Court order, it would be heading a two-pronged challenge – legal and movement on the streets,” said the forum convener, Bhaskar Ghosh, on Friday morning.

Currently, the West Bengal government employees receive dearness allowances at the rate of just 18 per cent, as against 55 per cent received by their counterparts in the Union government and even many other state governments.

Payment of 25 per cent of pending dues is expected to cost the state exchequer around Rs 12,000 crore.

The State Finance Department employees apprehend that this drain-out might impact some monthly payments under different welfare schemes run by the state government.

–IANS

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