West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress Supremo Mamata Banerjee addressing the Elaction Campaign at Jhargram. Pictures by Bibhash Lodh/BS News Agency.
Sanchita Chatterjee, BS News Agency: Mamata Banerjee Assures Clearance of Arrears. Amidst the ongoing tug-of-war in state politics over Dearness Allowance (DA), Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has made a significant announcement for teachers. Speaking at a public rally in Haroa, she gave an assurance that the state's teachers would soon receive their pending DA arrears covering the period from 2016 to 2019. Political observers consider this announcement by the Chief Minister—coming just ahead of the elections—to be highly significant. For a long time, deep-seated resentment regarding pending DA arrears had been brewing among a section of teachers, much like among state government employees. Recently, various teachers' organizations had raised their voices against this perceived "DA deprivation," even issuing warnings that they would demonstrate the impact of their grievances in the electoral arena. Against this backdrop, Mamata Banerjee explicitly stated that, in compliance with a Supreme Court directive, the state government has already disbursed the DA arrears for the 2016–2019 period to a section of government employees, and these arrears would soon be cleared for teachers as well.
It is worth noting that during the recent budget session, the state government had announced a 4 percent hike in DA, which was scheduled to come into effect on April 1st. However, even after the election schedule was announced, the absence of an official notification regarding this enhanced DA had created a sense of uncertainty among the employee community. Furthermore, the pressure intensified when Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to implement the 7th Pay Commission if the BJP were voted to power.
However, the Chief Minister countered this on the day by asserting that the state government has, in fact, already announced the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission. The ruling party believes that this message regarding the clearance of teachers' arrears will help alleviate some of the pent-up resentment within the education sector. It now remains to be seen how effective these two issues—the 4 percent DA hike announced in the budget and the clearance of past arrears—prove to be in winning over the teachers' support on the eve of the elections.