‘Secretariat to Satauj vapsi’: Punjab employees harden stance, set September 7 deadline

Sukhchain Singh Khehra, convenor of the Sanjha Mulazam Manch, said the unions have given the government until September 7 to withdraw show-cause notices issued to employees who had taken casual leave to participate in the August 27 ‘Maha Hartal’.

“If the government does not withdraw these notices, the entire ministerial services staff across Punjab, including employees at the Civil Secretariat and 40 directorates in Chandigarh, will observe mass casual leave on September 8,” Khehra said.

The Punjab government has initiated disciplinary action against employees who remained absent from duty on August 27 as part of the statewide ‘Maha Hartal’, directing administrative secretaries and heads of departments to issue show-cause notices to those found to have been absent without authorisation. More than three lakh government employees had participated in the mass casual leave on August 27, while over 3.5 lakh pensioners had extended support to the protest.

At Ludhiana meeting, the unions also announced protests outside the residences of Punjab ministers on September 12 and 13 and outside the residences of ruling-party MLAs on September 19 and 20.

On September 30, they will hold a mock Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh, inviting MLAs and ministers to respond to their demands. A Maha Rally will be held in Sangrur on October 10, they said adding, they will enforce a two-day ‘Maha Hartal’ on October 21 and 22 if the government fails to resolve the issues.

Punjab State Ministerial Services Union president Gurnam Singh Virk said the unions were also planning a one-hour silent human chain covering around 250-300 km between Chandigarh and a major district of Punjab. “Employees and members of civil society organisations would stand along highways and in cities holding banners against the AAP government. The date will be announced later,” said Virk.

Meanwhile, state BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon accused the AAP government of betraying the employees by withholding pending dearness allowance (DA).

“The employees are the backbone of every government, but for the first time in Punjab’s history, thousands of state employees have been forced to take to the streets for their rightful due,” Dhillon said.

Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Chugh said the Mann government’s move to issue notices to employees was an attempt to deter them from going on a collective strike. “There is no place for Nadirshahi diktats in Punjab,” Chugh said.

The government should abandon the path of confrontation, immediately engage with employee organisations and establish a clear time-bound mechanism to resolve their pending demands, Chugh emphasised.

In Patiala, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said his party stands with the employees. “We gave them all the benefits and DAs during our tenure. We also implemented the Pay Commission. Once we are back in power, we will resolve all the problems faced by state employees,” he said.

Behind the confrontation between the government and the employees is the demand for payment of pending DA and Dearness Relief (DR) instalments. Employee organisations claim that six instalments, totalling 18 per cent, have remained unpaid since January 2023.

The dispute intensified after a proposed meeting between the unions and Mann on August 27 was cancelled around an hour before it was scheduled. The meeting, initially fixed in Chandigarh and later shifted to Jalandhar, was called off with Mann stating that talks and a strike could not take place simultaneously.

On August 3, the Punjab and Haryana High court had directed the Punjab government to release all up-to-date pending DA/DR instalments to employees and pensioners within 15 days. With the government failing to release the money, a contempt petition has been filed in the high court.

Apart from DA and DR, employee demands include return to the old pension policy, implementation of minimum wages for mid-day meal, ASHA and Anganwadi workers, restoration of the Assured Career Progression (ACP) scheme and extension of Punjab pay scales to employees recruited after July 17, 2020.