A day after Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit slammed the Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi for making “factually incorrect” accusations against him for withholding his assent to a bill for regularising 36,000 contractual employees “under BJP’s pressure” while asking the Government to address the queries raised on the same, no progress has been made on the issue on Monday.
Earlier, Chief Minister Channi was expected to meet the Governor, along with the team of officers and the Ministers. However, the Chief Minister has not met the Governor on Monday. It was also not clear if the Government has responded to the queries raised by the Governor on the said Bill.
Channi, interacting with the media on the completion of his Government’s 100 days on Saturday, had declared that he, along with his Ministers “will meet the Governor again on Monday...If he does not do it (clear the file), then it is politics. If we have to stage a dharna, we will do it but we have to regularise employees. A law has been framed”.
Notably, Channi had raised a banner of protest against the Governor by accusing him of deliberately withholding his assent to a bill for regularising 36,000 contractual employees for some political reasons and “under BJP’s pressure”.
Channi had also maintained that he, along with his Ministers, had already met the Governor on the issue while the Chief Secretary had also visited the Governor twice for seeking his assent on the Bill.
However, the Governor, in a press statement on Sunday, asserted that he had reverted the said Bill to the Chief Minister’s Office on December 31, with some queries, which the Government now need to answer.
The Governor, updating the status of the file regarding the Bill to regularize the services of contractual employees in Punjab, had stated that the same was reverted to the office of Chief Minister Punjab with “six queries” which need to be clarified by the State Government.
“The file was duly received by CMO on December 31, 2021, and the reply to queries is awaited...I advise the Chief Minister to give reply to the queries raised on the file,” Purohit had said, adding, “Once the reply comes, the Bill will be re-examined at Governor's Secretariat.”
The Governor also pointed out that the file for the same was sent to Punjab Raj Bhawan on December 1, 2021 — after “a lapse of nearly 20 days”.
Notably, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha had passed ‘The Punjab Protection and Regularization of Contractual Employees Bill-2021’ on November 11, 2021, for regularising the services of 36,000 employees working on contract or on an ad-hoc, temporary or daily basis in different government departments.
Among a total of six queries, the Governor has asked the Government to explain how the State Government proposes to
meet the expenditure as a result of the implementation of the Bill.
“This is a Money Bill. The Committee of officials constituted to examine the financial impact have reported an estimated amount of Rs 827.87 crore of annual expenditure burden in regularizing an estimated 32,166 such employees in Government Departments and an amount of Rs 974 crore annual expenditure burden for regularizing an estimated 34,007 such employees in Boards and Corporations. There is no mention in the Cabinet note of how the State Government proposes to meet this expenditure?” read the Governor’s note to the Government.
It added, “There is also no clarity on how many more employees covered under section 4 of the bill who have not completed 10 years of service, will be regularized after completion of 10 years of service, and if so, what would be the estimated financial implication? Can such employees covered under section 4 of the bill be regularized without being in contravention with the decisions of the Supreme Court in State of Karnataka Vs Uma Devi case?”
Channi, by accusing Governor Purohit — a senior BJP leader — of deliberately “sitting” on the file to regularise the employees, had made an attempt to deflect the allegations of not regularising the candidates towards the BJP. However, with the Governor opening a front against the Government, Chief Minister Channi and his Government had been pushed on the back foot.