Complaint filed after poster threatening to bomb govt employees agitating for DA hike surfaces

PTI, Mar 14, 2023, 10:30 AM IST

Government employees in Bengal, who had been staging a protest seeking dearness allowance (DA) hike, lodged a police complaint after a poster was found pasted at the protest venue in Dharmatala here threatening to bomb the agitators if they don’t call off the demonstration.

Describing the strike as a ”drama”, the poster said ‘call it off or you will be bombed’.

”We have received a complaint in this regard and have started investigating the matter,” an officer at Maidan police station said on Monday.

According to one of the agitators, the poster ”was probably put up in the early hours” as nobody had noticed any outsider coming to the camp.

”We are not scared of such threats. We will continue our strike till the demands are met by the state government. Such threats will consolidate our unity and help us fight for our rights,” he said.

Agitators, who have been demanding that their DA be raised at par with central government employees, had called for a strike last Friday, affecting work in government offices.

A section of demonstrators had also been observing hunger strike to press for the demand.

Notably, senior TMC leader and city mayor Firhad Hakim had described the strike as a ”drama”.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said in the assembly last week that she would not be able to meet the demand for a DA hike even if the protesters ”behead” her.