Kolkata, 04 June (H.S.) : The West Bengal government has begun disbursing long-pending Dearness Relief (DR) and Dearness Allowance (DA) for retired state government employees and their families, covering dues from 2008 to 2015, according to an official notification issued by Nabanna.

As per the circular dated May 29, the state government has clarified that in cases where a pensioner or employee has passed away, the pending dues will be released to the nominated beneficiary or legal heir. The government noted that in several instances, it was found during the payment process that eligible beneficiaries had already died, leading to procedural and administrative complications. To address these issues, revised guidelines had already been introduced earlier.

Under the updated framework, if a nomination has been duly registered, the pending amount will be directly credited to the nominee’s bank account. In cases where the nominee and the family pensioner are the same individual, the payment will be made directly to their account. However, where nomination details are not available, legal heirs will be required to submit necessary documents, following which the payment will be released after verification.

Officials from the state finance department further confirmed that the government has also started releasing pending Dearness Allowance dues for retired employees for the period between April 2008 and December 2015. These payments are being processed in a phased manner.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh