It seems that West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had a goodie bag ready for New Year on her Cooch Behar tour, on Wednesday.
Banerjee announced a hike of 7 per cent in dearness allowance for state Government employees beginning January 2013. ‘I wish you happy New Year. I have come to North Bengal. There is an immense financial crunch as you all know that Union govt is taking away all our earnings towards repayment of debt. Inspite of that I have a good news for the government employees, there will be 7 per cent hike in DA from January 2013,’ she announced.
Reeling under acute financial crunch, Mamata Banerjee set a precedent by instructing the state finance secretary to remain present at the first cabinet meeting of the New Year.
It is learnt that the chief minister wants to review the revenue status and focus on generation of non-plan funds to disburse the fresh installment of dearness allowance (DA).
Following Mamata’s instruction, chief secretary Sanjay Mitra has asked finance secretary H K Dwivedi to attend the cabinet meeting on 2 January.
Until now, the chief secretary has been the only bureaucrat attending cabinet meetings in his capacity as the cabinet secretary.
The government is all the more under pressure because of its commitment to release an installment of the pending 27 per cent DA.
Mamata wants to clear at least 6 per cent now and another 7 per cent by March. This would add a burden of Rs 100 crore next month.
At the end of the current fiscal, the total debt burden will soar to Rs 2,31,203 crore. Since the government can’t defer the obligatory payment of DA to the next fiscal, it finds itself in a crunch.
The government, according to officials, has already been tapping chunks of funds earmarked for development.
Banerjee announced a hike of 7 per cent in dearness allowance for state Government employees beginning January 2013. ‘I wish you happy New Year. I have come to North Bengal. There is an immense financial crunch as you all know that Union govt is taking away all our earnings towards repayment of debt. Inspite of that I have a good news for the government employees, there will be 7 per cent hike in DA from January 2013,’ she announced.
Reeling under acute financial crunch, Mamata Banerjee set a precedent by instructing the state finance secretary to remain present at the first cabinet meeting of the New Year.
It is learnt that the chief minister wants to review the revenue status and focus on generation of non-plan funds to disburse the fresh installment of dearness allowance (DA).
Following Mamata’s instruction, chief secretary Sanjay Mitra has asked finance secretary H K Dwivedi to attend the cabinet meeting on 2 January.
Until now, the chief secretary has been the only bureaucrat attending cabinet meetings in his capacity as the cabinet secretary.
The government is all the more under pressure because of its commitment to release an installment of the pending 27 per cent DA.
Mamata wants to clear at least 6 per cent now and another 7 per cent by March. This would add a burden of Rs 100 crore next month.
At the end of the current fiscal, the total debt burden will soar to Rs 2,31,203 crore. Since the government can’t defer the obligatory payment of DA to the next fiscal, it finds itself in a crunch.
The government, according to officials, has already been tapping chunks of funds earmarked for development.