West Bengal government staff demands November salary in cash

Kolkata: The West Bengal Government Employees Union (Nabaparjaya) has written to the state chief secretary, requesting him to make cash payment of the salary of November to the government employees.

Arjun Sengupta, joint secretary of Nabaparjaya, in the letter said, “You are well aware of the agony of the public at large due to demonetisation drive of the central government scrapping  Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. The government employees of the state are not spared by the arbitrary, unilateral step of the Centre... In  absence of new Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the employees and people in general face untold problems in buying essential commodities. The other low denomination notes have simply disappeared from the market, adding to the woes.”

Mr Sengupta added that the apprehension of the employees have accentuated as the Centre has declared that the banks will not disburse more than Rs 24,000 in a week. “If this persists, the employees with salaries more than Rs 24,000 will not be bale to draw their full salaries for November,” he added.  

Meanwhile, acting on a tip off, the Baguihati police station on Thursday afternoon arrested two people  with Rs 12.5 lakh while they were exchanging scrapped notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. “Both the accused, Harsh Baid of GD 272, Salt Lake, and Lalit Baid, Kesto Das Lane in Girish Park, could not provide any document pertaining to the cash. The sleuths also seized the car in which the accused were carrying the cash,” a senior police officer said.

On November 8, PM Narendra Modi announced demonetisation of high-value currency notes, following which the common man has been facing a lot of inconvenience.