5 per cent DA hike row rocks Tripura Assembly; Congress seeks Cabinet memo, CM hits back

An altercation broke out between Chief Minister Prof Dr Manik Saha and Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman during the third day of the Tripura Legislative Assembly on Tuesday, March 17 over the cabinet decision regarding the declaration of Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) for government employees and pensioners.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, shortly after the completion of the Question and Answer session, Roy Barman demanded that the government place the cabinet memorandum before the House to clarify whether the announcement of a 5 percent DA had actually been approved in the cabinet meeting.

He stated that a cabinet meeting had been held before the presentation of the budget. 

However, after examining the budget documents, including the budget at a Glance and the expenditure statements, he could not find any mention of the proposed DA increase.

Roy Barman urged the ministers to present the cabinet memorandum in the Assembly to verify whether the decision regarding DA was formally included. 

He claimed that during his tenure as a minister he had interacted with several officials, some of whom indicated that the matter had not been part of the cabinet discussions.

According to him, such a situation would amount to a disrespect to the Council of Ministers and the House if the Assembly had been misinformed.

“Just for the sake of maintaining decorum, we cannot remain silent. The House appears to have been misled. The claim that the issue was discussed in the cabinet is absolutely false. Such practices should not happen. I demand that the cabinet memorandum be placed before the House. To my knowledge, the DA proposal was not approved in the cabinet,” Roy Barman said.

Responding sharply to the allegations, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha asserted that the decision regarding the DA had indeed been taken by the cabinet and that all necessary procedures had been followed.

He further clarified that the announcement of DA does not necessarily need to be directly reflected in the budget documents.

“The decision was taken in the cabinet and all relevant documents will be submitted. There is no direct relationship between the budget and the announcement of DA. All rules and legal procedures have been followed. By making such allegations, you are insulting everyone. You often try to create a political stunt and appear unaware of the rules,” the Chief Minister said.