Following cabinet’s invite for meet, pensioners conclude march to Punjab Assembly at border

Several demonstrators under the banner of the Punjab Employees and Pensioners Joint Front on Tuesday too held a massive rally near Gurdwara Amb Sahib, protesting against the Punjab government’s failure to address their long-pending demands. Coinciding with the Vidhan Sabha budget session, the demonstration escalated into a protest march towards the Assembly, only to be halted by police at Chandigarh’s entry point near Burail Jail.

Following an official invitation for a meeting with the Cabinet Sub-Committee on April 15, the protest concluded at the barricades.

Addressing the gathering, prominent leaders of the association, including Jarmanjeet Singh, Satish Rana, Gurpreet Gandiwind, and Ranjit Ranwan, condemned the government for ignoring the demands of employees and honorarium workers. Key demands of the group include enforcing minimum wage laws, regularising contractual and outsourced staff workers, reinstating the old pension scheme, applying Punjab’s pay scale instead of the central one for post-2020 recruits, restoring 37 withdrawn allowances, and scrapping the Rs-200 development tax.