Use of water cannons and tear gas shelling on employees condemned

Protest rally was at Punjab Civil Secretariat

Employees warned Govt. of pen drop strike from September 4

CHANDIGARH, AUGUST 23, 2021: Today employees of Punjab Civil Secretariat today held a rally at 7th Floor,(Finance Department) of Punjab Civil Secretariat. They condemned the firing of water cannons and tear gas on the employees of the Punjab Government who were going to hand over the memorandum to the Punjab Ministers. It may be recalled that Punjab government employees have been protesting against the 6th pay commission and other demands for a long time . On 29th July 2021 a huge rally was organized by the employees at Patiala in which about 1 lakh employees participated. Following this a round of meetings was held by the government with the Employees Unions, especially the Punjab-UT Employees and Pensioners Joint Front in which after deliberations the Punjab Government’s Ministers Committee and Officers Committee held a joint press conference and announced that the deducted allowances of the employees will be reinstated and will be doubled.  The salary of each employee will be increased by at least 15%. This increase will be given to the employees on the basis of salary as on 31.12.2015 and the due arrears will be paid in 9 installments. Employee leaders said that on 31.12.2015, their D.A. (due) was 119% while the government is considering only 113% D.A. whereas Central Employees deputed in Punjab Govt. such as IAS / IRS / IFS in were drawing 119% of D.A on 31.12.2015.

Committee Chairman had informed the media persons that a memorandum regarding these demands of the employees would be brought in the Cabinet meeting soon and necessary letters regarding these demands would be issued soon so that the employees do not go on strike and the general public should not suffer in any way. The last meeting of the government with the employees was held on 13.08.2021 but since then the government has remained silent which has led to growing protests in the entire working class. On the other hand, the Personnel department has tried to strike a blow by repeating the instructions of “No work, no pay” and once again warning the employees not to go on Pen Down strike. No memorandum regarding the demands of the employees was presented in the cabinet meeting held on 16.08.2021 which has increased the unrest among the employees which resulted in the “Gherao” of the ministers on 20.08.2021. Now the employee leaders have warned the government that if no decision is taken in the cabinet on 26.08.2021 regarding the demands of the employees, the employees of entire Punjab will go on Pen Down strike from 04.09.2021 and Punjab Government will be responsible for this. Employees’ leader Sukhchain Khehra said that employees have no intention of harassing the people of Punjab by going on daily Pen Down strike. However, the government is running away from implementing the decisions taken in the meetings. The Punjab Government is responsible for the inconvenience caused to the residents of Punjab during the Pen Down strike. He said that employees from all over Punjab are being mobilized for the pen down strike and no slack would be left in it. Long pending demands of employees such as Pay Commission, release of DA and its arrears, old pension scheme, withdrawal of letter dated 15.01.2015, confirmation of Adhoc/Contractual/outsourced employees, direct recruitment of employees etc.  Sushil Kumar, Praveen Kumar,  Inderpal Bhangu, Sukhjit Kaur, Sandeep Kumar, Sahil Sharma, Gurpreet Singh from Punjab Civil Secretariat Staff Association,  Kulwant Singh from Financial Commissioner Secretariat, Saurabh, Parvinder, Balraj Singh Daun President Punjab Civil Secretariat Class-4 Association, Mahesh Chandra, Bajrang Yadav etc. from the hospitality department were present.