DA stir: Agitators urge Bengal Guv to act as mediator, arrange meeting with Mamata

PTI, Kolkata, Mar 13, 2023:  West Bengal government employees, agitating to press for their demand for a hike in dearness allowance, have urged Governor C V Ananda Bose to act as a mediator in the matter and arrange a meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The protesters stated they would withdraw their hunger strike only after getting assurance from the state government regarding their demand.

Following Bose’s request to sit together to find a way out of the imbroglio, representatives of the agitating employees met him at the Raj Bhavan on Sunday.

“We want the governor to mediate in the matter and arrange for a meeting with the chief minister,” one of the agitating employees present at the meeting told PTI.

Following the meeting, which lasted for around 20 minutes, Bose said, “I appealed to those on hunger strike to kindly withdraw it because human life is precious. Every complex problem has a solution and we should try for it with an open mind.” The governor had on Saturday, too, urged the agitators to withdraw their stir.

Protesting employees of 18 organisations, who have been demanding that their DA be raised to the level of central government staffers, had called for a total strike on Friday.

Banerjee had said in the assembly last week that she would not be able to meet the demand for a DA hike even if the protesters “behead” her.