The Joint Platform of State Government Employees, which comprises 23 unions, took out a massive rally in Calcutta on Saturday, demanding their due dearness allowance (DA) on a par with their central government counterparts.

The employees demanded that the state government immediately implement Calcutta High Court's recent decision upholding the state administrative tribunal’s verdict that Bengal government employees had the right to DA on a par with that of central employees.

A division bench comprising Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Rabindranath Samanta directed the state government to clear the pending DA within three months. Sources in the state administration said it would need Rs 20,000 crore to clear the due DA.

A source said the Centre had given 34 per cent DA (of the basic pay) to its employees after the seventh pay commission had been implemented in January 2016. In Bengal, the government has so far given 3 per cent DA after the sixth pay commission was implemented from January, 2020.

In August, the Bengal administration moved a petition be¬fore the high court seeking a revision of its order asking the state to pay DA to its employees on a par with central govern¬ment employees. The move angered state government em¬ployees who hit the streets in protest on Saturday.