THE CPM on Thursday staged a walk out from the state Assembly, protesting against the Speaker disallowing party leader Sujan Chakraborty from reading out a notice relating to the state pay commission and price rise. Congress, meanwhile, stayed back due to “technical problems”.
Speaking to mediapersons outside the Assembly, Chakraborty alleged that while the state government had initiated the process to implement the Seventh Pay Commission, it is yet to be done. “We wanted a discussion on the issue and on the difference in pay between the state and central government employees. But we were not allowed… The difference in dearness allowance, which was already 50 per cent, will now become 100 per cent,” he said.
When asked why didn’t Congress members walk out with CPM MLAs, Leader of the Opposition and Congress MLA Abdul Mannan said: “We did not walk out owing to certain technical problems.” He refused to elaborate further.
Terming the manner in which CPM was disallowed to speak as “highly undemocratic”, Mannan added: “By allowing him to speak and not CPM, the ruling Trinamool Congress was trying to create a wedge between the two parties. The Left and Congress will now be more watchful and vouched for better floor coordination.”
Asked if the two alliance partners have started drifting apart, Chakraborty said: “Simply because we had walked out and Congress did not does not mean we are drifting apart. There is no reason to believe that our floor coordination will be hampered. The way democratic rights are being denied by the ruling party, it is necessary to continue the fight together, inside and outside the Assembly.”
Earlier, at the start of the Zero Hour, Mannan said that after the announcement of Union Cabinet’s acceptance of the 7th Pay Commission by the Centre on Wednesday, the difference in salaries between the state and central government employees had become “enormous”.
He wanted to know from the ruling Trinamool Congress what steps were being taken to give relief to the state employees. To this, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee said the state government was sitting on a debt burden of Rs 2.13 lakh crore but the employees were being paid on time.
Chatterjee said he would draw the attention of both the chief minister and finance minister on the issue and in spite of the gap, the state government had brought the work culture which was ruined by the Left government. Regarding payment of balance DA, he said that it was a sensitive issue.
Meanwhile, opposed to Congress and CPM’s decision to boycott the business advisory committee meeting, both parties attended the same. “We had decided to boycott the meeting but the Speaker requested us to attend. He assured that he would look into our grievances. Honouring the Speaker’s chair, we decided to attend the meeting,” said Mannan.
Source : http://indianexpress.com/
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