KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee asserted that Bengal was the only state where the government continued with the pensionary benefits to state employees.
“Bengal is the only state where the government continues with pension for state employees. The BJP-ruled states have discontinued pension,” the CM said on Friday. The BJP-backed Paschimbanga Rajya Sarkari Karmachari Parishad staged a stir against deprivation of state employees in regard to DA, gratuity and pension by the state government. Leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari joined the stir later in the day.
Some teachers in state-run schools who retired this year had been complaining that they were yet to get pension. An education department official said the government was aiming to disburse pension as early as possible.
BJP leaders nursed the scare among state employees saying that the state wouldn’t be able to disburse salaries in future given the poor state of finances in Bengal.
But government figures mentioned in the Budget papers didn’t endorse the scare. The state augmented its own generation, both tax and non-tax, and also set a higher target of tax mobilisation, mostly state excise and sales tax for 2022-23. Also, devolution of funds and grant-in-aid from the Centre to the state showed a rise.
Principal chief advisor to the government Amit Mitra refuted the Opposition’s spreading concern over state’s accumulating debt that is estimated at Rs 5.86 lakh crore. “Debt to GDP ratio is now 34.35%, a tad lower than the 40.65% when Trinamool came to government in 2011,” he said.
