Govt services in Punjab impacted; three lakh employees go on strike

Chandigarh: The government services across Punjab were impacted on Thursday, with over three lakh employees of almost all departments, boards and corporations going on a mass casual leave for a day over non-payment of dearness allowance (DA) arrears and other long-pending demands.

The employees, joined by nearly four lakh pensioners, would stage day-long sit-in protests at government offices at the district, tehsil and block levels.

The impact of the “Maha Hartal” was also seen in government hospitals, dispensaries and educational institutes. However, markets, private establishments, plying of private and public transport buses and emergency services are exempted from the shutdown.

According to employee unions, their dearness allowance of Rs 20,161 crore has been pending. Out of this, Rs 6,000 crore has been pending since 2021, while another Rs 14,161 crore is pending before 2021, the year the AAP government came to the helm.

Employees are getting DA at 42 per cent of basic pay, while they claim it should be 58 per cent.

A day ahead of the strike, state Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, who is heading the Cabinet Sub-Committee constituted to resolve employee issues, held a series of meetings with multiple employee unions in Chandigarh.

“The Bhagwant Mann government is deeply sympathetic to your causes. Action on most of your major demands is already under process,” he said at the meeting.

He also issued directives to the Transport Department, the Education Department, the Animal Husbandry Department, and the Finance Department, saying, “Consider the legitimate demands of the employee unions with utmost sympathy. Expedite the necessary actions required for their swift resolution.”

Amid the strike, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will be meeting leaders of employee unions later in the day at the Punjab Armed Police (PAP) complex in Jalandhar to amicably resolve the issue.

Earlier this month, Cheema had said the government has inherited a Rs 14,191 crore liability of employees’ pay commission arrears. He had said the government has already cleared more than Rs 6,000 crore under a High Court-approved liquidation plan and remained committed to paying all constitutionally and legally valid dues.

Cheema had said the employee pay commission report was originally formulated in 2016 during the tenure of the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government but remained unimplemented for years. “The report was implemented only in July 2021. As a result, dearness allowance (DA) arrears from January 1, 2016, to July 2021 were frozen, creating a liability of Rs 14,191 crore,” he had said.

Cheema’s reaction came after the Punjab and Haryana High Court had on August 3 directed the government to clear the pending DA arrears within 15 days. Also, it restrained the state from undertaking a large-scale advertisement campaign until the dues are paid.

“Till all such dues are cleared, the state of Punjab shall not resort to any unproductive expenditures such as large-scale advertising campaigns in print or social media as these expenses cannot justify the denial of dues admissible to state employees,” the High Court had observed.

IANS