Calcutta High Court on Thursday asked the chief secretary and the home secretary to hold talks with three representatives of the Sangrami Joutha Mancha, an association of eight state government employees’ unions agitating for dearness allowance on a par with central government employees, on April 17 and find a solution.

“The employees have been agitating and observing cease work for so long. The situation should not be allowed to continue. So the state chief secretary and the finance secretary should sit with three representatives of the agitating employees and find out a solution to the stalemate,” Acting Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam said.

The order followed a public interest litigation by advocate Rama Prasad Sarkar seeking the court’s intervention to end the stalemate. In his petition, Sarkar said the stalematewas creating problems for the general public.

Responding to Thursday’s cease work call by the Mancha, employees of Calcutta High Court, who are on the rolls of the state government, joined the protest.

This hit the normal functioning of the court on Thursday as a significant number of employees did not work.

The high court employees had decided to hold cease work on Thursday and intimated authorities about it.

Although the Acting Chief Justice through a notification urged high court employees not to cease work, they went ahead.

During the hearing, advocate-general S.N. Mukherjee admitted that a good number of high court employees were absent as they were observing cease work. The Acting Chief Justice expressed concern at the absence of adequate employees and asked the AG how many were present in court on Thursday.

The advocate general said since there was no biometric system to count the number of staff present, it was impossible for him to tell the exact number.

After talking to the AG, the Acting Chief Justice issued the order and asked the state to inform him about the outcome of the meeting.

Senior state government officials said the chief secretary and state finance secretary will speak with representatives of the agitating employees and explain Bengal’s financial situation to them.

“The employees will be told that the state was not against their demand but it can't match the Centre’s DA because of financial crunch as the central government was holding back funds under several schemes. As the state has to carry several welfare schemes, it is impossible to give DA on a par with central government employees,” said a source.

Mancha members said state government employees get 32 per cent less DA than their central government counterparts. The difference is likely to go up to 38 per cent once the Centre's latest hike kicks in.

The Mancha expressed satisfaction at the high court order. “At least now the state government has to hear us out. So far, the state government was claiming that the DA is not our right,” said a union leader.