Mamata govt's lack of data-driven discourse leads to Bengal DA crisis
The first flaw, according to economists, is a persistent lack of clarity in the formula applied for calculating or determining the DA rates for state government employees, both in the context of the previous 5th Pay Commission and in the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission.
Had the state government followed the All India Consumer Price Index (AICPI) as the benchmark for calculating and determining DA for the state government employees, such a lack of clarity could have been easily overcome by now, economists feel.
AICPI is followed as the benchmark for determining the DA rates by the Union government and most state governments. Nationally, AICPI is the accepted formula for this purpose.
However, the West Bengal government is not agreeable to accepting AICPI as the benchmark in fixing the Dearness Allowance rate for its employees. Hence the lack of clarity and data-driven discourse continued, which ultimately resulted in conflicts between the state government and its employees.
Currently, the West Bengal government employees receive Dearness Allowances at the rate of just 18 per cent, as against 55 per cent received by their counterparts in the Union government and even many other state governments.
With the Supreme Court deadline of June 27 at midnight for payment of 25 per cent DA arrears to the state government employees already over, the West Bengal government has already made a plea to the apex court seeking six months of additional time for paying the same.
Secondly, the exact number of beneficiaries in the state government, who were supposed to benefit from this Supreme Court order, as well as the category-wise breakup of beneficiaries, is not at all clear as of now.
Naturally, with the lack of clarity in the numbers under these two heads, there is also a lack of clarity and data-driven discourse on the payout from the state exchequer for each category and subsequently the total payout under all the categories combined.
Already, confusion has surfaced over the pressure on the state exchequer to pay the 25 per cent DA arrears to the state government employees as directed by the Supreme Court.
While one section within the state finance department claims that the payout will be a little over Rs 10,000 crore, another section quotes the figure to be slightly less than Rs 12,000 crore.
Economists said that had there been enough clarity in the data under the heads mentioned above, this confusion would not also have arisen.
Economists also feel that the hush-hush approach of the West Bengal government in portraying the actual arithmetic on this count has resulted in this lack of clarity and data-driven discourse. For a long time, the state government had not even made the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission, the latest, public.
The recommendations were made public only after a single-judge bench of Calcutta High Court directed the state government to do so. While passing the order the single- judge of Justice Amrita Sinha observed that since Pay Commission documents were not included in the classified category, maintaining such secrecy in the matter by the state government was unnecessary.
As regards the members of the state cabinet including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, all have maintained a brooding silence in the matter. On the issue of dearness allowance, the Chief Minister just said once the state government would move as per law.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Standard
15 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Godrej Consumer gains after forecasting double digit revenue growth for Q1
Godrej Consumer Products rallied 6.39% to Rs 1,269 after the company expects the consolidated double-digit revenue growth on the back of high-single digit UVG in Q1 FY26. Home Care business has had a broad-based and strong growth trajectory with overall Home Care business likely to deliver double-digit value growth and UVG. Personal Care business is expected to grow value in low-single digit impacted by soaps. The company said that its standalone business is likely to deliver high-single digit value growth on the back of mid-single digit UVG. Volume growth has been strongly competitive and is sequentially improving. Standalone business excluding soaps (which is seeing a price-volume rebalancing driven by commodity volatility) is expected to deliver a very strong performance this quarter with double-digit UVG. Indonesia business faced a significant increase in competitive pricing action across all major categories. The company said that this will likely result in flattish UVG. GAUM (Godrej Africa, USA, and Middle East) business is likely to deliver strong double-digit value growth and UVG for the second consecutive quarter. Profit growth continues to be healthy. As guided during the companys Investor Meet (May 2025), it expects performance to improve sequentially in FY26. It believes for FY26, on track to deliver mid-high-single digit UVG for standalone business, high-single digit consolidated INR revenue growth and double-digit consolidated EBITDA growth for the full year. The standalone EBITDA margin in Q1FY26 is likely to be below its normative range but is expected to improve. While palm oil prices have started moderating towards the end of June, benefits of this moderation will only be realized in H2FY26. Godrej Consumer Products is an Indian consumer goods company. The company's products include soap, hair colorants, toiletries and liquid detergents. The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 411.90 crore in Q4 FY25 compared with net loss of Rs 1,893.21 crore in Q4 FY24. Net sales increased 6.3% YoY to Rs 3,577.81 crore in Q4 FY25.
Scroll.in
17 minutes ago
- Scroll.in
Centre withholds overseas scholarship for 66 candidates, says clearance subject to fund availability
The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has issued provisional scholarship letters to 40 out of 106 selected candidates for the 2025-'26 National Overseas Scholarship, saying that the remaining 66 will receive theirs 'subject to availability of funds'. In previous years, all selected candidates were issued letters at the same time, the Hindustan Times reported. The National Overseas Scholarship, which began in 1954-'55, supports students from Scheduled Castes, Denotified Nomadic Tribes, semi-nomadic tribes, landless agricultural labourers and traditional artisan communities. The scheme funds master's or PhD degrees at the top 500 global universities as per QS rankings, offering up to $16,920, or nearly Rs 14.5 lakh, annually for a maximum duration of three years for master's programmes and four years for PhD programmes. It provides 125 scholarships annually, capped at 10% per state. The applicants must have a family income under Rs 8 lakh per annum. The QS World University Rankings are a ranking of the world's top universities produced by Quacquarelli Symonds and published annually since 2004. In the Union Budget announced in February, the Centre allocated Rs 130 crore to the National Overseas Scholarship for 2025-'26. This was a 36.84% increase from Rs 95 crore in 2024–'25, the newspaper reported. As of December, the ministry had disbursed Rs 56.29 crore to 80 beneficiaries for the academic year 2024-'25. In a notice dated July 1, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said that it received 440 applications for the 2025-'26 academic year between March and April. It shortlisted 106 candidates for the scholarship, placed 64 on a 'non-selected' list and rejected 270 applicants. The 'non-selected' category included students left out due to the 10% cap per state or other quotas. These candidates may still be considered if those initially selected fail to submit the required documents. The scheme has 125 slots, but the allotments depend on the availability of funds. This means that the rejections are not final and students may still receive the scholarship later, as per the Hindustan Times. An unidentified official from the ministry told the newspaper that the Union government has funds but they cannot be released without clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 'It is an issue with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs not approving the money allocated to these scholarship schemes,' the official was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times. 'We have the money but we also need green signal from above to give it out.' The Maulana Azad National Fellowship, which is open for candidates from Muslim, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist and Christian communities, has also seen delays, with more than 1,400 PhD scholars not receiving stipends since January 2025, the Hindustan Times reported. There were also discrepancies with the National Fellowship for Scheduled Castes. For the June 2024 cycle, the National Testing Agency first published a selection list of 865 scholars in March 2025. However, it revised the list in April, reducing the selections to 805 and replacing 487 previously chosen candidates with new ones, the newspaper reported.
Hindustan Times
17 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Vice President warns of 'Ides of March' for judiciary after cash found at judge's residence
Kochi, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday said he hopes a criminal investigation will be launched into the large stash of cash found at a judge's official residence in New Delhi, comparing the incident to the "Ides of March" a reference to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and a symbol of looming misfortune. Vice President warns of 'Ides of March' for judiciary after cash found at judge's residence Referring to the incident, he said now the point is, if that cash was found, the system should have moved immediately and the first process would have been to deal with it as a criminal act, find out those who are culpable and bring them to justice. While interacting with the students and faculty members at the National University of Advanced Legal Studies , the Vice President likened the cash discovered at the High Court judge's residence to the "Ides of March." He said the judiciary faced its own "Ides of March" on the night of March 14–15, when large amounts of cash were officially acknowledged to have been found, yet no FIR was filed. Dhankhar stressed that the system should have treated it as a criminal matter from the start, but added that the Centre is currently constrained by a Supreme Court ruling from the early 1990s. "But so far, there has been no FIR. The government at the central level is handicapped because an FIR cannot be registered in view of a judgment of the Supreme Court rendered in early 90s," he said. His statement comes amidst reports that Justice Yashwant Varma was facing an impeachment in Parliament after an unspecified amount of money was found in his official residence following a fire. Justice Varma has denied all allegations and submitted responses to both the Delhi High Court Chief Justice and a Supreme Court-appointed panel. Despite this, judicial work was withdrawn from him, and he was later transferred to the Allahabad High Court, where the Chief Justice was directed by the apex court not to assign him any judicial duties for the time being. The panel investigating the incident has recorded statements from over 50 people, including Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora and Delhi Fire Service chief Atul Garg, who were among the first responders. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
