As one moves on State Highway-11 — the road that connects Ludhiana with Sangrur — a board welcomes the commuters just before the Babbanpur Canal Bridge. Route is diverted because of a dharna ahead, reads the message on the board. Barricades have been placed to divert the traffic at the location that falls in Dhuri, the Assembly constituency represented by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. The road is considered lifeline of Sangrur, the parliamentary constituency that twice elected Mann to Lok Sabha, before he vacated it take charge as CM. The dharna on the bridge has been launched by contract employees working in different government departments demanding regularisation of services. These employees are working in public works department (PWD), water and sanitation department, thermal plants of Lehra Mohabbat and Ropar, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), sewerage board, and various other bodies. "We are around 36,000 in number. We are protesting under the banner of Theka Mulazam Employees Union. We are often the subject of headlines. Previous CM Charanjit Singh Channi had announced that the contract employees will be regularised and even Mann in his poll campaign kept saying that this will be the first work he will do after becoming CM. But nothing has been done. We feel cheated. Now we have started an indefinite dharna from October 7," said Sher Singh Khanna, state president, Water Supply and Sanitation Contract Employees Union while talking with The Indian Express. Khanna said he is an ITI diploma holder but is working as a tubewell pump operator on contract basis in Longowal area of Sangrur. “My salary is Rs 8,000 per month while a regular employee in the same rank gets over Rs 80,000 per month. Moreover, the contractor who hires us gives us the pay cheque after imposing 50 per cent cut on what government gives to them for contract employees,” he alleged. Balwant Singh, also on contract in Longowal area cleans chocked sewer lines. “I have been working for more than 10 years and still get only Rs 8,000 per month while a regular employee doing the same job gets around Rs 60,000 per month. At least, give us the pay that is mentioned in government record,” he said. He too alleged that the contractor pockets half of his pay. Most of the people protesting on the highway have experience ranging from three to ten years as contractual staff. Neartlly all of them said they get salary in the range of Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000 per month. Khanna said, "We had a meeting with Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and four principal secretaries last month where they told us that every government department will do a survey to find out the number of years of service of employees and the last salary being drawn by them. They were to meet us on September 30 with feedback, but nothing happened, so we started this dharna”. Meanwhile, commuters are facing a tough time due to the dharna. "We cover the distance between Ludhiana and Sangrur in 1.30 hours but it took us nearly double that today. The traffic was diverted due to the dharna. We had to move through narrow lanes in villages where we also faced traffic snarls,” said Namita Garg, a commuter who travelled from Ludhiana to Sangrur on Saturday morning. "Two railway crossings fall on the diverted route,. Heavy vehicles too have been diverted through the villages," added Jagdish Kumar, another commuter. “Government must listen to the protestors and resolve their issues at the earliest. It seems government is immune to employees' as well as Aam Aadmi's concerns," added another commuter coming from Jalandhar to Sangrur. On Saturday, a state level chess tournament had been organised in Sangrur. Due to the dharna, many participants got late in reaching the venue. The tournament was delayed by about one and a half hours. It needs to be that already an indefinite dharna is going on inside Bhagwanpura Sugar mill in Dhuri since September 14.
