Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday termed the Congress-led Punjab Government’s latest decision to delay the release of Sixth Punjab Pay Commission report by another six months as the biggest betrayal of promises made to State employees.
At the same time, Akali Dal condemned the state Finance Minister Manpreet Badal for always making excuses of empty coffers when it came to release the dues of employees but wasting crores on newly-appointed advisors and chairpersons.“The State Government has again stabbed its employees as well as pensioners in the back by announcing another extension in the term of Sixth Punjab Pay Commission,” said the senior SAD leader Janmeja Singh Sekhon.“Finance Minister Manpreet Badal had promised to implement the Sixth Pay Commission from January 2020. Now, its implementation has been further postponed up to June 30, 2020, and likely to be extended even more,” he said.
Lashing out at the State Government for turning back on every promise it made to the people at the time of assembly polls, the SAD leader said that the Government owed Rs 4,000 crores to the state employees in Dearness Allowance dues.“Around 27,000 employees are awaiting regularization. Instead of giving anything, the Government is taking away facilities from employees as it is planning to stop 13th salary to Punjab police personnel. Earlier, it had also slashed the salary of teachers from Rs 40,000 to Rs 15,000,” he said.
Stating that the SAD would fight alongside the State employees to force the Government to release the Sixth Pay Commission report, Sekhon said: “We also demand a special session of the Vidhan Sabha to discuss all pending promises made to the people.”
“Like the government’s promise to implement the Sixth Pay Commission at the earliest, similarly farmers were promised complete loan waiver, youth were promised jobs and the Congress promised to augment social welfare benefits. None of this has been done. We demand the forthcoming session of the Vidhan Sabha be extended to discuss all these issues,” said Sekhon, the former Minister.
LOOK INTO FINANCE DEPT’S FUNCTIONING: SUKHBIR TO CM
SAD president Sukhbir Badal on Thursday asked Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to look into the functioning of the Finance Department and stop it from freezing development work.“It is shocking that the Finance Department has issued a circular stopping all development works in the State,” he said.Asking Capt Amarinder to stop these anti-people steps, Sukhbir said that the State Government could easily generate money by stopping the profligacy of its Ministers and Advisors.“Instead of making the people suffer, the government should ask its Ministers and Advisors to forgo their salaries and perks. Simultaneously, it should stop wasteful expenditure,” he said.Sukhbir announced that the SAD would agitate along with employees for fulfillment of their genuine promises. He said that besides more than Rs 4,000 crore pending in the form of Dearness Allowance, the Congress Government was not allowing implementation of the sixth Pay Commission and not regularizing 27,000 employees whose cases had been cleared by the previous SAD-BJP government.