Kolkata, 18 May (H.S.): The second Cabinet meeting of the newly formed BJP government in West Bengal is scheduled to be held on Monday, with state government employees eagerly awaiting a possible decision on dearness allowance (DA).

The meeting, to be chaired by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, is expected to discuss issues related to DA and the pay commission, official sources said.

The first Cabinet meeting of the new government was held at Nabanna last Monday. After the meeting, the chief minister had indicated that matters concerning DA and salary-related issues of state employees would be taken up in detail in the next meeting.

The development has raised expectations among government employees, many of whom have long been demanding pending DA dues and parity with central government employees.

The DA issue had triggered a prolonged legal battle during the tenure of the previous government, with employee organisations accusing the then administration of deliberately withholding the allowance.

The matter eventually reached the Calcutta High Court and later the Supreme Court of India, both of which had ruled in favour of payment of DA to employees.

Just before the Assembly election notification was issued, former chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced that pending DA dues under ROPA-2009 would start being cleared from March 2026.

However, sections of government employees have alleged that despite the deadline passing, they are yet to receive the dues.

Some employees also claimed they had been informed that part of the DA amount would be deposited into their provident fund accounts, but that has not happened so far.

Following the change of government in the state, expectations among employees have increased over possible relief from the new administration.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey