Finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya on Wednesday announced a 3 per cent hike in dearness allowance for the state government employees and employees in state-aided institutes like schools, panchayats and municipalities as part of the government’s attempt to placate the employees, whose belligerence in demanding DA parity with their central government counterparts is on the rise.

“I announce a 3 per cent hike in dearness allowance for the state government employees and pensioners,” said Bhattacharya, the minister of state (independent charge), finance department, during her budget speech in the state Assembly.

Sources said there was no prior plan to announce the DA hike in the budget speech, but it became a part of the budget speech following intervention by chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Bhattacharya was towards the end of her speech when Mamata scribbled something on a piece of paper and sent it to the former who read out the DA hike announcement.

Chandrima Bhattacharya and Mamata Banerjee in the Assembly before the budget session on Wednesday Picture by Pradip Sanyal

The treasury benches welcomed the decision. The Opposition raised several questions about the process by which the announcement was made.

“Everyone saw how the state is run in an ad hoc manner by the chief minister, who suddenly wrote a note and the finance minister announced a hike in dearness allowance,” said leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari after the budget presentation.

He said the BJP fully supports the state government employees’ demand for pay parity with central counterparts. He added that the BJP legislators would raise the issue during discussions on budget.

“This will put an additional burden of Rs 2,300 crore annually on the state exchequer. As the chief minister asked the finance minister to announce this in her budget speech, it is assumed that the chief minister had already discussed the issue with senior government officials,” said a bureaucrat.

The state government employees were so far getting 3per cent DA, 35 per cent less compared to their central government counterparts. The 3 per cent hike would bring down the difference to 32 percent.

“The gap still remains wide. But the state government sent a message to the protesting employees,” said a bureaucrat.

A total of 20-odd employee unions have been agitating over the past few weeks demanding the due DA in parity with central government employees. The unions are threatening to go for a larger movement against the state government if their demand is not met.

“The announcement of afresh installment of DA sends a message that the state government does not want to deprive the employees but it can’t match the DA with the central government employees only because of financial constraints,” said a source.

The announcement, however, did not make the agitating employees happy.

A leader of the joint forums said this announcement won’t help.

“We are getting 35 per cent less DA compared to the central government employees. This 3 per cent will not help us at all. We will continue our agitation,” he said.

The Opposition linked the announcement with the impending Supreme Court hearing on March 15 on a case over the state government’s petition against a Calcutta High Court order which askedNabanna to clear DA arrears.

“It’s nothing but drama,” said CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty.