Rejecting the plea of a section of the state government employees over the hike in Dearness Allowance (DA), the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) stated that it is the prerogative of the government whether to hike the DA or not.
The division Bench of Justice Moly Dey and Justice Amit Talukdar clearly stated that it completely depends on the government whether the DA will be hiked. If the government wants, it will give the DA and there is no legal right of employees on it.
At present, the difference between the DA of the state government employees and that of the Centre stands at 46 per cent. Thus, a section of employees of the state government had moved to the Tribunal.
It may be mentioned that as a New Year gift to all Bengal government employees, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced a 10 per cent hike in DA in December 2016 that cost Rs 3,000 crore to the state's exchequer.
In the beginning of 2016, too, DA was increased by 10 percent. Moreover, the Mamata Banerjee-government had ensured timely payments of salary unlike the delay caused by the erstwhile Left Front government and to give relief to the state government employees, camps were set up at Nabanna to help them get notes of lower denomination after demonetisation was announced.