Kamal Ghorui
KOLKATA: Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee announced Sunday that her govt would pay Rs 10,000 crore in DA arrears to nine lakh state employees and pensioners from March and hike the monthly honorarium for Hindu priests and Muslim muezzins by Rs 500 to Rs 2,000, squeezing in both just before the model code of conduct kicked in. Mamata made the clergy honorarium hike on her official X handle at 2.40pm. The DA arrears assurance followed at 3.05pm, 55 minutes before the start of CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s presser to declare the poll schedule for four states and one Union territory. Pay 25% of DA arrears by March 31, SC had told TMCBengal govt employees and pensioners “will start receiving their ROPA (Revision of Pay and Allowances) 2009 DA arrears from March 2026 onwards, per the modalities detailed in the notifications issued by our finance department,” CM Mamata Banerjee posted on X Sunday, less than an hour before the CEC’s presser to declare the poll schedule for four states, including Bengal. In Feb, Supreme Court directed the Trinamool govt to pay 25% of DA arrears – amounting to Rs 10,000 crore – by March 31. The remaining arrears are to be paid based on a schedule drawn up by a committee headed by Justice (retd) Indu Malhotra.Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the timing had nothing to do with elections. “The CM had planned this scheme well in advance and made the formal announcement when she deemed it appropriate,” he said.Bengal’s leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari dismissed the DA announcement as “a joke” and a “classic TMC election drama”.Responding to a question, CEC Kumar said there was nothing wrong about the Union or a state govt implementing a new policy decision before the announcement of polls. But once the model code takes effect, “any decision affecting the outcome of elections or acting as an inducement is not allowed”, he said.Bhaskar Ghosh of Sangrami Joutha Mancha, a union of state govt employees, called the announcement “the result of sustained pressure by agitating employees from a non-partisan platform”. The hike in honorarium came as relief to around 2.5 lakh priests, of whom close to 1.7 lakh are registered with the Paschimbanga Rajya Sanatan Brahman Trust. This will benefit them significantly,” trust president Rajib Banerjee said.
