West Bengal State Coordination Committee -- one of the leading trade unions of state government employees agitating for enhanced dearness allowance and arrears on this count -- has decided to conduct a "March to State Secretariat" in May.

According to the committee spokesman Biswajit Gupta Chowdhury, the agitation will be conducted on May 4 at 2.30 p.m., with the protestors marching towards the state secretariat of Nabanna located at Mandirtala.

The leadership of the joint forum of state government employees, the umbrella organisation spearheading the movement on this count, have also been invited to take part in the agitation programme on May 4.

"Besides demand for enhanced DA and the arrears, the other demands to be raised include filling up of the vacant positions in the state government, conduct recruitment process in a transparent manner and regularisation of the contractual staff," Chowdhury said.

Before the May 4 agitation, the trade union committee will conduct motorcycle rallies in different districts of the state registering their protests on this count.

To recall, on April 21, there was a bipartite meeting between the state government and a joint forum of state government employees on this count. However, the meeting failed to come out with any positive solution.

After the meeting, the joint forum coordinator Bhaskar Ghosh claimed that the meeting failed since the state government give not come up with any specific solution.

On that day, Ghosh threatened to go for wider movements, including continuous strikes in the coming days in support of their demands in the matter.

A matter on this is already pending at the Supreme Court. Although the hearing in the matter was scheduled for April 24, it was postponed. [IANS/NS]