DA crisis: Bengal governor has agreed to mediate, claim agitators

West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose has agreed to mediate between the state government and agitating government employees to find out an amicable solution to the ongoing stir and fasting agitation over the demand of payment of dearness allowances.

A five-member delegation of the joint forum of state government employees, the umbrella organisation spearheading the movement in the matter, met the Bose at Governor House on Sunday morning.

Emerging out of the meeting, the delegation members claimed that the Governor has assured them that if the state government agrees, he is ready to play the role of a mediator on this count.

On late Saturday evening, Bose from his official Twitter handle sent an appeal to state government employees to withdraw at least their fasting agitation.

"Governor is deeply pained that the hunger strike of the aggrieved employees is entering its fourth week. The issues involved may be complex but there is always a simple way out. What is of paramount importance is the precious life of our brothers who are on a continuous fast for a cause which is close to their heart. Governor entreats all those who are on the perilous fast to kindly end it and request all stakeholders to sit together and find an acceptable way out of the imbroglio," his Twitter message read.

After getting the message, the delegation of agitating employees met the Governor on Sunday.

"We had been demanding a tripartite meeting involving the state government and the Governor. The Governor has assured us that he will attempt to arrange that. He is himself a former government employee. So, he understands that our demand for pending DA arrears are justified. The Governor has assured us of initiating the needful from within his constitutional provision," a member of the delegation told media persons after meeting the governor.

However, he added, that the agitations will not be withdrawn right at this moment. "We will see how fruitful the Governor's attempts on this count. On the basis of that we will decide over our future course of agitation," the delegation member said.

Currently the gap of the state government employees with their counterparts in the Union government stands at 32 per cent and this gap is even after the West Bengal minister for finance (independent charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya announced an additional three per cent DA for the state government employees in February.

Besides continuous fasting agitations for over four week, the forum already observed a one-day strike on Friday and a two-day pen-down strike before that in February.

--IANS

src/uk/