Mamata Banerjee announced to increase dearness allowance of West Bengal government employees by four percent.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday announced that her government will increase the dearness allowance (DA) of all its employees by four percent from the first day of the new year. The opposition has termed this decision as a ‘lollipop’ before next year’s Lok Sabha elections. Banerjee made this announcement at the inauguration of ‘Kolkata Christmas Carnival 2023’ at Park Street area of the city. Banerjee said, “I announce that all 14 lakh employees of the state government, teaching and non-teaching staff of all schools, colleges and universities, employees of all government undertakings and pensioners will get four percent DA from January 1, 2024.” One more installment will be given. Banerjee said that for the DA increase, her government will have to bear an additional expenditure of Rs 2,400 crore. He said, “For us DA is not mandatory but optional. Keeping in mind the welfare of the employees, we are increasing the DA by four percent. Government employees of West Bengal have been protesting for almost a year demanding increase in dearness allowance. Criticizing the state government’s decision, Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Subhendu Adhikari, highlighted the disparity of about 40 per cent in DA compared to the central rate. The BJP leader said in a post on ‘X’, “The Chief Minister of West Bengal has announced a mere four per cent increase in dearness allowance for the state government employees.