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Capt urges protesting govt employees to call off strike
The chief minister expressed concern over their continued agitation, which has severely impacted the functioning of state government departments
Assuring all efforts to resolve their grievances, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday appealed to the striking state government employees to call off their agitation to prevent inconvenience to the people.
Chairing a high-level meeting to review the demands of the striking employees, the chief minister expressed concern over their continued agitation, which has severely impacted the functioning of state government departments, according to an official spokesperson. The state government had constituted a committee of officials to look into the demands of the agitating employees.
The committee examined, in detail, the demands of employees’ associations and had submitted its report. It found that certain demands raised by the employees were linked to the decisions of the government prior to 2006 and were in no way connected with the report of the 6th Punjab Pay Commission, the spokesperson said.
As such, it was decided that these demands will be considered separately, based on the recommendations of the administrative department. The meeting further decided that certain demands linked with inta/inter departmental issues will be addressed in consultation with the departments of personnel and finance, the spokesperson said.
Acceding to a long-pending demand of the employees, the Punjab government had decided to implement the recommendations of the 6th Punjab Pay Commission within a month of receipt of its report.
The implementation of the commission’s recommendations with effect from July 1, 2021, has resulted in a financial outflow of ₹4,692 crore to approximately 2.85 lakh employees and 3.07 lakh pensioners every year. On an average, it works out to ₹79,250 per annum, over and above what they are getting at present.
In addition, the government employees and pensioners will be getting arrears of ₹14,759 crore, which works out to an average of ₹2.32 lakh per employee/pensioner, the spokesperson said.
The meeting was attended by local government minister Brahm Mohindra, finance minister Manpreet Badal, PWD minister Vijay Inder Singla, chief principal secretary to the chief minister Suresh Kumar, chief secretary Vini Mahajan, principal secretary to the chief minister Tejveer Singh and other senior officials of the departments of finance and personnel.
