The Calcutta High Court on Monday extended the date for holding talks between the West Bengal government and state government employees who have been staging protest in Kolkata, demanding a hike in their dearness allowance (DA). The division bench of Justices Subrata Talukdar and Hiranmay Bhattacharyya said this while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the state government against the agitating employees on April 6. In the last hearing, the High Court had directed the state government to hold talks with the employees and submit a report within April 17. Aniruddhya Bhattacharya, a member of the Joint Forum of State Government Employees, said, “The state Advocate General submitted that it wasn’t possible to hold talks as the employees' forum wanted the same after April 13. The next three consecutive days turned to be holidays and the state government couldn’t do so. Then the judge extended the date of holding the talks by ten days and ordered to resolve the issue within the given time.” He added, “The judge also observed the discrepancies in DA among employees of various states. The judge upheld that staging demonstration is the employees' right. We hope that the state government will try to resolve the issue." Forum convener Bhaskar Ghosh said, “It has been 81 days since we are staging this protest, but still there hasn’t been any clear path to resolve the issue. We are also very certain of the fact that we are going to intensify this agitation. The state government didn’t get any time to hold the talks and asked for some more time. The Advocate General said in the court that they would issue a notice within a few days for the same." The matter will now come up for hearing on May 11.
