Rejecting the 3 percentage-point dearness allowance hike announced by chief minister Bhagwant Mann as a “Diwali gift” for government employees in Punjab, the Sanjha Mulazam Manch and the Joint Coordination Committee of Employees and Pensioners (JCCEP) on Thursday announced a month-long stir starting November 13, turning up the heat on the government over its failure to address their pending demands.
The employees’ organisations will start their agitation with a week-long dharna in Sangrur from November 13 to 19, following it up with protests outside the residences of AAP legislators in their constituencies from December 1 to 5, where protesting employees will burn the effigies of the ruling party.
“The ashes of the effigies will be placed in urns and immersed in the Buddha Nullah in Ludhiana on December 6. In the second week of December, employees from across Punjab will gather in large numbers and form a human chain from Shambhu Border to Attari Border (Amritsar),” according to the detailed programme announced by the Sanjha Mulazam Manch, an umbrella body of employee unions, and JCCEP at a press conference here.
The stir plans were revealed by the employees’ organisations a day after the chief minister announced the hike in dearness allowance for 8 lakh government employees and dearness relief for pensioners in the state.
{{/usCountry}}The stir plans were revealed by the employees’ organisations a day after the chief minister announced the hike in dearness allowance for 8 lakh government employees and dearness relief for pensioners in the state.
{{/usCountry}}The hike, which will be paid in the December salary and pension, will take the dearness allowance for employees to 53% of their basic pay/pension, whereas employees have been demanding 63% on par with the central government.
The central government had, on October 29, announced to increase DA for its employees and dearness relief for pensioners by 3 percentage points over the existing rates of 60%, with retrospective effect from July 1, 2026.
The Wednesday announcement marks an 11-percentage-point increase by the state government in two months. Earlier, the state government had announced an 8% hike in DA, taking it from 42% to 50% following a three-week-long standoff with employees and pensioners. The 8% DA, backdated to July 2023, was disbursed on October 1 with the September salary.
Sharing employees’ resentment while speaking to the media, employee leaders Sukhchain Singh Khehra, Gurnam Singh Virk and Sushil Kumar said the state government had failed to fulfil their demands, including the restoration of the old pension scheme, release of the remaining 10% DA, payment of dearness allowance arrears and revival of 37 discontinued allowances.
‘Govt spreading misinformation’
They also accused the Punjab government of a misinformation campaign against employees. “The state government has been claiming for a long time that employees of the Punjab government are drawing higher salaries than employees of other states, whereas the truth is that employees recruited after July 17, 2020, are being given lower pay scales on the central pattern. They are not being given the higher allowances applicable at the central level,” they said.
According to their press release, under the notification issued on January 15, 2015, employees were paid only basic pay during the three-year probation period, which was much lower in comparison with other states.
Khehra also pointed out that the state government had still not presented the second report of the Pay Commission, thereby denying employees the benefits of the Annual Career Progression Scheme.
Other demands include regularisation of contractual and outsourced employees, and reinstatement of 253 computer teachers who have been dismissed from service. The employees’ leaders further warned that if the government failed to meet their demands, more stringent forms of protest would be undertaken.
Khehra applies for voluntary retirement
Employee leader Sukhchain Singh Khehra, a prominent face of the government employees’ agitation for several years, has opted for voluntary retirement from service, nearly six years ahead of his scheduled retirement.
The 52-year-old employee leader, who served as coordinator of the Sanjha Mulazam Manch, submitted his VRS application last month, but it has yet to be approved, according to a union leader.
There is speculation that he may enter politics and contest the upcoming assembly elections. Khehra, a superintendent-rank official, was transferred out of the state civil secretariat in August this year, at the height of the employees’ agitation. He had earlier served as president of the Punjab Civil Secretariat Employees Association.