Kolkata, May 1 (IANS) The West Bengal State Coordination Committee on Monday approached the Calcutta High Court seeking permission for its ‘March to the State Secretariat’ demanding the of payment of enhanced dearness allowances and arrears accrued on it, after police denied the trade union body from carrying out the agitation.
The court’s single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha has admitted the petition and the hearing will take place on Tuesday.
The committee had earlier announced its agitation on May 4. The leadership of the joint forum of state government employees has also been invited to take part.
“We were quite sure from the beginning that the police permission would be denied and hence, we took our legal preparations on this count from the very beginning. Now we are looking forward to a favourable direction from the court on this count,” said an office bearer of the committee.
As per the schedule of the committee, the agitation was supposed to take place on May 4, at 2.30 p.m., with the protesters marching towards the state secretariat Nabanna located at Mandirtala from Esplanade in central Kolkata.
Meanwhile, the joint forum of state government employees, the umbrella organization spearheading the movement on dearness allowances payment, has already outlined a series of agitation programmes in the coming days on this issue.
A protest meeting is scheduled for May 6, the day the sit-in agitation by the joint forum at the base of Shahid Minar will complete its 100th day.
The protesters will take out a rally on that day which will culminate near the Hazra crossing, which is less than a kilometre from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence in Kalighat.
After that they will hold a protest meeting at that spot only.
–IANS
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