SAD demands Cong govt release DA installments and arrears besides regularizing services
SAD demands Cong govt release DA installments and arrears besides regularizing services The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today demanded the Congress government immediately release Dearness Allowance (DA) installments as well as arrears of Rs 4,000 crore besides regularizing services of all contractual employees as per the Act passed by the erstwhile SAD-BJP government. It also demanded speedy submission of the Sixth Punjab Pay Commission report. Addressing a press conference here, former finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa said never before in the history of Punjab had government employees been denied their just benefits as was being done now under the Congress regime. “Employees have been forced to commemorate the holy occasion of Diwali as a Black Diwali this year as the government failed to release four installments of DA at the rate of nine per cent of basic pay of seventh Central Pay Commission”. He said this amounted to 22 per cent of the basic pay of Punjab government employees which was due along with arrears of Rs 4,000 crore accumulated during the last one and a half years. Also Read: SAD condemns Cong govt for withdrawing partial free power to SC and backward class Demanding release of all installments of DA, Mr Dhindsa said the government should also release half of the arrears due to employees as a belated Diwali gift. “Arrears are always paid during Diwali as a festival gift”, he said adding employees had also reminded finance minister Manpreet Badal of the same by beating empty utensils outside his home but apparently the government was also deaf to the demands of employees as it was to those of all other sections of society. The former FM also demanded regularization of services of all 27,000 contractual employees who had been identified by the previous SAD-BJP government and for whom the Punjab Adhoc, Contractual, Daily wage, Temporary, Work Charged and Outsourced Employees’ Welfare Bill, 2016 was also passed after convening a special assembly session. He said the Act, which should be immediately implemented by the Congress government, had called for regularization of services of contractual employees while ensuring pay protection to them. “It is condemnable that the present government was refusing to implement the employee friendly Act and had neither repealed it”, he added. Asserting that the instead of implementing the Act, the Congress government was violating it, Mr Dhindsa said the government’s decision to reduce the salaries of RMSA and SSA teachers while offering them regularization of services after a period of three years was condemnable. Asking the Congress government not to oppress and repress teachers in this manner, he said the previous SAD-BJP government had increased their salaries from Rs 10,000 per month to Rs 42,000 per month in ten years. “Now the same employees are being offered a flat salary of Rs 15,000 per month. This is intolerable. We demand the government regularize their services without any pre-condition as envisaged in the 2016 Act passed by the SAD-BJP government”. The Akali leader said the anti-employee attitude of the Congress government could also be seen from the fact that it had not issued any direction to the Sixth Punjab Pay Commission to submit its report so that the same could be implemented speedily. Asking the government to issue directions to theCommission to submit its report within three months, he said in the meantime the government should give interim relief to employees by revising the Basic Pay. He said the interim relief could be calculated by hiking Basic Pay by ten per cent after merging DA into it. Mr Dhindsa also pointed out that the government was mismanaging State finances even as it continued to give excuse of financial crisis. He said the Congress government was unable to come up with a fiscal policy which could increase own State revenues. “In the last one and a half years own tax growth has been negative and even excise and stamp duty collections have been below stated targets”. He also lambasted the government for failing to create any new jobs and said it was ridiculous that the Congress party was trying to take credit for jobs created by colleges through placement services. Also Read: Will try to solve issue of regularization of Adhoc employees, says Captain Amarinder The Akali leader announced that the government would meet all employee leaders and come out with a joint agitation programme to force the government to accept the genuine demands of employees. Employee leaders Gurcharan Singh Kauli and Harpal Singh Teja were also present on the occasion besides party spokesman Parambans Singh Romana and legislator Kanwarjit Singh Barkandi. -PTC NEWS
