Bengal govt issues notification announcing 6% DA to employees from March 1

The West Bengal govt issued a notification for the grant of dearness allowance to the employees, pensioners, and family pensioners at the rate of six per cent of the basic pay with effect from March 1

The West Bengal government on Friday issued a notification for the grant of dearness allowance (DA) to the employees, pensioners, and family pensioners at the rate of six per cent of the basic pay with effect from March 1, following the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission.

The six per cent in DA is the total of the three per cent increase announced in December 2020 (meant for January 1, 2021 implementation) and a similar raise declared recently.

The notification said that "the calculation of DA shall be made taking into account the revised basic pay and non-practising allowance if any, but it shall not include any other type of pay."

"The DA will also be admissible to teaching and non-teaching staff of government-aided institutes as well as to staff of the local bodies. It will be the responsibility of the pension disbursing authority to calculate the quantum of dearness relief on revised pension and family pension payable to each individual case," the notification stated.

A state government employee said that even after this raise, they will still be 32 per cent short of the DA offered by the central government to its staff.

Several organisations of state government employees have been agitating seeking DA parity with the Centre. Earlier this week, they held a 48-hour 'pen down' agitation ignoring warnings of action.