West Bengal state government employees, agitating to press for their demand for a hike in dearness allowance (DA), on Sunday urged Governor C V Ananda Bose to act as a mediator in the matter and arrange for a meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The agitators stated they would withdraw their hunger strike only after getting assurance from the state government regarding their demand.
Following the governor's request to sit together to find a way out of the imbroglio, representatives of the agitating employees met him at Raj Bhavan.
"The governor requested us to withdraw our hunger strike. We promised him that we will surely do that but only after getting assurance from the state government. We are yet to get anything from them.
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"We want the governor to mediate the matter and arrange for a meeting with the chief minister," one of the agitating employees present at the meeting told PTI.
Noting that they want an honourable solution, he asserted that the state government will have to sit with them for a meeting in this regard, while lamenting that not a single minister or bureaucrat came to meet them.
Following the meeting, which lasted for around 20 minutes, Bose said, "I appealed to those on hunger strike to kindly withdraw it because human life is precious. Every complex problem has a solution and we should try for it with an open mind."
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Bose had on Saturday urged the agitators to withdraw their stir as it entered the fourth week.
Protesting employees of 18 organisations, who have been demanding that their DA be raised to the level of central government staffers, had called for a total strike on Friday.
Banerjee said at the assembly earlier this week that she would not be able to meet the demand for a DA hike even if the protesters "behead" her.
-With PTI Input
