Kolkata, May 18 (IANS) The crucial second meeting of the new West Bengal cabinet under the leadership of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari is scheduled on Monday afternoon, with sectors such as state finance and education being on the agenda.

In the finance sector, a crucial subject on the agenda is the long-contentious issue of paying Dearness Allowances (DA) to the state government employees at par with their counterparts in the Central government and the arrears accrued on it as directed by the Supreme Court and also as promised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its pre-election Sankalp Patra (election manifesto).

Sources in the state secretariat said that a decision is likely to be taken on how to make the upfront payment of 25 per cent of the accrued 2008 – 2019 DA arrears.

Although the Supreme Court directed the West Bengal government to make a 25 per cent upfront payment by March 31, 2026, the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government somehow managed to avoid it.

In the education sector, state secretariat insiders said the cabinet will discuss policies on making the admission process in the undergraduate sections in state-run and state-aided colleges and universities absolutely transparent and strictly on a merit basis, eliminating the influence of students’ wings of different political parties.

After the cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister is also scheduled to hold a crucial meeting with the top officials of the Border Security Force (BSF) to discuss the progress of land handover to the border guard agency for the erection of barbed fencing at the unfenced borders with neighbouring Bangladesh.

After that, Chief Minister Adhikari will felicitate the meritorious and top rankers in the secondary and higher secondary examinations of the West Bengal Board, the results of which were declared earlier this month.

The results of the secondary examination were declared on May 8. And the results of the higher secondary examination were declared on May 14.

Chief Minister Subhendu Adhikari spoke to Adrit Pal, the topper of the higher secondary, through a video call. At that time, he said that he would felicitate the meritorious students. The topper in the CBSE and ISC examinations from the state will also be felicitated.

–IANS

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