Kolkata, Feb 22, 2023, IANS

Kolkata, Feb 22 (IANS): After pen-down strike for the past two days, the joint forum of West Bengal government employees has now called for a total strike in all offices of the state government on March 9 as part of the bigger protest on non-payment of pending dearness allowance dues.

A spokesman of the forum said that March 9 has been deliberately chosen as the proposed day for the strike since by then, the examinations conducted by West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) will be over.

"We need a bigger support of the people in our movement which we are already getting. We do not want to create any inconvenience for the examinees appearing for their first board examination of life. Precisely that is why we have decided to keep all emergency services out of the ambit of the strike on March 9," he said.

On Monday and Tuesday, the state government employees reported at their respective offices and marked their attendance but refrained from performing their regular duties, as a result of which normal workflow was affected.

On Tuesday, the court clerks and court officers of the Calcutta High Court also participated in the pen-down strike hampering the normal hearing process there.

However, on March 9 the proposed strike will be of bigger magnitude as the state government employees will neither report on duty nor mark their attendances and rather will stage protests in front of the state government offices.

"We know that the state government will be slapping a notification threatening of dies non without break in service to foil our strike. But we will continue with our scheduled programme ignoring that. Meanwhile, we are also keeping our legal options open to counter the state government's dies non attempt," the joint forum representative said.

Meanwhile, he added, the state government employees will continue with their protests on the streets of Kolkata which has already completed 26 days, out of which for 12 days, there had been relay fasting.