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Government staffers’ strike cripples services across Punjab, Mann refuses to meet unions
Hours before his scheduled meeting with protesting employees’ unions on Thursday, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann refused to meet them, even as a statewide strike brought work across government departments to a grinding halt, causing widespread inconvenience to people
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Hours before his scheduled meeting with protesting employees’ unions on Thursday, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann refused to meet them, even as a statewide strike brought work across government departments to a grinding halt, causing widespread inconvenience to people.
“Employees are an important part of our family and we are ready to listen to every legitimate concern of theirs...But dialogue and strikes cannot proceed together,” Mann posted on X before he was to meet the protesters at the Punjab Armed Police headquarters in Jalandhar at 1 pm.
While the government said that action would be taken against absentee employees, the protesters struck a defiant note, saying they will decide on the next course of action on Sunday and announced they would burn effigies of the CM on Friday and Saturday.
The state-wide “maha hartal,” organised by the Punjab Sanjha Mulazam Manch, an umbrella coalition representing over 150 employee unions, saw nearly four lakh staff members proceed on mass casual leave. They were joined by roughly 3.5 lakh pensioners demonstrating outside district headquarters, sub-divisional tehsils, and block-level offices.
The widespread strike shuttered routine government operations, suspended outpatient department (OPD) services in state-run hospitals, and disrupted public transport, schools, and civic administrative offices across the state
The protest also reverberated in the civil secretariat with employees shouting slogans against Mann in the corridors of the CM’s office in Chandigarh.
The protesters have been demanding the release of the pending 18% dearness allowance (DA), the implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and regularisation of contractual employees.
The flashpoint centres on ₹20,161 crore pending DA arrears. The Punjab and Haryana high court, acting on a clutch of petitions on August 3, had directed the state government to release the amount within 15 days. The deadline has already expired after which, as per court orders, a 6% per annum interest has to be paid. State finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema has already made clear that the government doesn’t have funds to release the pending amount in a single tranche.
With the assembly polls around the corner, the employees’ anger over DA arrears has given opposition parties a potent issue to target the Mann government.
Govt adopting arm-twisting tactics: Employees
Earlier, when a 16-member delegation of the employees’ joint coordination committee reached the PAP complex for talks, they were told to withdraw the protest as a pre-condition for talks, but the unions refused.
Civil secretariat staff association president Sushil Kumar Fauji, who was part of the delegation to meet the CM, said: “We were conveyed by a DIG-rank officer to submit in writing that the protest is being withdrawn and all employees will resume work. We bluntly refused.”
Gurnam Singh Virk, convener of the joint coordination committee, described the last-minute cancellation of the meeting as “dictatorial and arm-twisting tactics.”
This is not the first time that the CM had ditched the government employees; earlier, he and other top officials had also shown direct reluctance to have talks with the employees, he said. “The government has been underestimating the strength of the government employees, who are fighting for genuine demands,” Virk added.
On Wednesday the unions were conveyed through a written communication about shifting of the meeting venue from Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh to Jalandhar.
Govt seeks list of absentee employees
The department of personnel has written to all special chief secretaries, additional chief secretaries, financial commissioners, principal secretaries and administrative secretaries to take action regarding unauthorised absence of employees.
“Complaints have been received from the public that they have been put to a lot of inconvenience because officials are not on duty in their respective government offices,” the letter stated. It added that all administrative secretaries and department heads are requested to compile and submit the list of such absentee employees to the department of general administration by the end of the working day (today itself) for further necessary action as per the provisions under the applicable service rules.
Punjab pays highest salaries: CM
Earlier, addressing the newly recruited constable at Jalandhar, Mann said the state government pays highest salary to its employees, referring them as the backbone of the state government. “Punjab takes pride in providing the best possible remuneration to its employees. If the Centre or any state government pays ₹36,000 to any of its employees, the Punjab government pays ₹50,000 to them,” he added.
