Kolkata, June 20 (IANS) A political slugfest surfaced in West Bengal over the Calcutta High Court’s interim stay on Friday, restraining the state government from providing stipends to non-teaching staff, who lost their jobs following an order of a Division Bench of the Supreme Court in April this year.

According to Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, the interim stay was inevitable considering the manner in which the state government hurriedly issued the notification last month announcing stipends for all job-losing non-teaching staff, including both “untainted” and “tainted” ones.

“Previously also there had been several instances of the state government announcing financial relief to cover up their acts of corruption,” Suvendu Adhikari claimed and added, “They did exactly the same thing in this case. So the interim stay was inevitable.”

The Chief Whip of the BJP’s legislative party in the West Bengal Assembly, Shankar Ghosh alleged that the real intention behind announcing the stipend was to protect the interest of the “tainted” ones who got jobs by paying cash to Trinamool Congress leaders rather than providing financial relief to the “untainted” ones who got jobs by proving their eligibility.

“The hidden agenda of the state government in announcing the stipend is clear and hence the interim stay on its payment was legally inevitable,” Shankar Ghosh said.

Trinamool Congress state general secretary in West Bengal, Kunal Ghosh said that yet another humane approach by a sensitive chief minister like Mamata Banerjee has been stalled by some politically-motivated vested interests.

“I have nothing to say about the legal angle of the interim stay. I cannot say anything about how the state government will legally address this issue. But surely the intention of the petitioners challenging the stipends for the job-losing non-teaching staff is highly questionable,” Kunal Ghosh said.

Even legal circles feel that the manner, in which the notification announcing the stipend for non-teaching staff, in Group-C and Group-D categories was issued, had some legal flaws.

According to them, while the announcement involves a huge payout from the state exchequer, the state government had no answer to a question from the Calcutta High Court on what it would get in return from those job-losing non-teaching staff against the stipend paid to them.

–IANS

src/rad