Implement 6th pay panel, seek state ministerial staff

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 13

Members of the Punjab State Ministerial Services Union on Thursday staged a protest against the state government for not fulfilling their demands.

The protesters demanded the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission’s recommendations and disbursement of dearness allowance, which has been pending for 23 months.

Employees of various government departments, including DC office, treasury, excise and taxation, DFSC, irrigation, health, social security, PWD, ITI, agriculture, water supply and sanitation and mandi board, participated in the protest and raised slogans against the state government.

Addressing the gathering of protesters, Kewal Bansal, district president of the union, said, “We have been demanding the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission’s recommendations for long, but to no avail. Besides, employees do not get salaries on time and owing to the prolonged delay, they have to suffer a lot. We have also been demanding pending dearness allowance for over 23 months. The indifferent attitude of the government will not be tolerated.”

“We have been demanding implementation of the ‘equal pay for equal work’ principle, but the government did not pay any heed to it. The government must revoke development tax of Rs200,” he added.

Other demands of the union are implementation of the cashless health scheme, regularisation of the services of contractual employees and restoration of the old-pension scheme. The protesters said the probation period should be treated as qualifying service.

They threatened to intensify their stir of their demands were not met.