At Mohali, Sukhbir promises to restart old pension scheme for govt staff

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday assured that if the SAD-BSP alliance is voted to power, it would restart the earlier pension scheme for state government employees.

Addressing an election rally in Sector 79 in favour of party candidate Parvinder Singh Sohana, Badal said, “We are committed to restarting the old pension scheme as demanded by government employees. We have taken into consideration all financial aspects for restarting the scheme immediately after government formation.”

He said that they will also remove all anomalies of the seventh Pay Commission and that all contractual employees would be regularised. He also announced that the party was committed towards establishment of the Employees Welfare Board that would take up all pending issues of government employees and resolve them at the earliest. He said that employees should have faith in the SAD, which had earlier also implemented all promises made to employees, including establishment of successive Pay Commissions.

Taking potshots at former Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, he accused him of looting the common people and highlighted his involvement in the multi-crore scams of vaccines and Corona kits as health minister. He alleged that Sidhu didn’t even care for the development of Mohali and whatever development the city has seen, including the International airport, establishment of the Information Technology city, Indian School of Business and world class road network, had taken place during tenure of SAD-led governments only. Urging the people to beware of AAP and its false guarantees, Badal said that AAP claimed that it would give tickets to ordinary people but it sold tickets to the highest bidder. “They gave 65 tickets to turncoats. Even the Mohali ticket has been sold to property magnate Kulwant Singh who has also indulged in opportunistic politics by hopping from one party to another,” Badal said.