New Delhi: More than 300 school teachers received notices from the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), asking them to show cause why they were absent on March 10, the day of a strike demanding increased dearness allowance (DA), disobeying the state government’s instruction to remain present.
The show cause notices were issued to the teachers of various schools across the state, a WBBSE official said on Wednesday.
WBBSE President Ramanuj Ganguly told PTI that the Board only followed the state government’s recommendations on the issue.
"We went by the reports of the District Inspector of schools and heads of respective educational institutions about the presence of teaching staff on March 10 and implemented the directive of the state secretariat," Ganguly said.
While he did not specify the total number of teachers, the WBBSE official said the number was a little over 300.
A forum of 18 state government employees’ organisations had called the strike on March 10 demanding a hike in DA.
The West Bengal government issued an order saying that all offices including those provided with grants-in-aid by the state such as educational institutions shall remain open on March 10 and all employees will report for duty on that day and no leave will be granted for that day.
Last month, the state government issued a notification for the grant of dearness allowance (DA) to the employees, pensioners, and family pensioners at the rate of six per cent of the basic pay with effect from March 1.
The six per cent in DA is the total of the three per cent increase announced in December 2020, to be implemented from January 1, 2021, and a similar raise declared recently.
Despite the announcement, the state government employees were still unhappy, saying that even after this raise, they will still be 32 per cent short of the DA offered by the central government to its staff, as per PTI.
(With PTI inputs)