Punjab govt committed to paying valid dues, exploring legal options: FM Cheema
A day after the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the Punjab government to clear pending dearness allowance (DA) of employees and pensioners, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Tuesday said legal options, including the possibility of filing an appeal in the Supreme Court, were being examined.
The high court on Monday had directed the Punjab government to clear pending DA of employees and pensioners within a fortnight, while dismissing appeals filed by the state and the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) against a single bench's earlier direction to release the pending DA.
The court also directed that until all such dues are cleared, Punjab shall not resort to unproductive expenditure, such as large-scale advertising campaigns in print or social media, since these expenses cannot justify denial of dues admissible to state employees.
Reiterating the state government's commitment to employees, Cheema said on Tuesday, August 4, that all constitutionally and legally valid dues would be paid.
"Our legal team is examining the recent judgment in detail, reviewing the judicial precedents and consulting legal experts to determine the appropriate legal course, including the possibility of filing an appeal before the Supreme Court," Cheema said here.
Cheema said Punjab already offers some of the highest government pay scales in the country, surpassing the central government in several categories, and that the state government had inherited a Rs 14,191 crore liability in employee pay commission arrears due to the policies of the previous SAD-BJP and Congress governments.
He said the AAP-led Punjab government had already cleared over Rs 6,000 crore under a liquidation plan and remained committed to paying all constitutionally and legally valid dues while examining the high court judgment and the legal remedies available.
According to Cheema, the employee pay commission report was originally formulated in 2016 during the tenure of the SAD-BJP government but remained unimplemented for years. "The report was implemented only in July 2021. As a result, dearness allowance (DA) arrears from January 1, 2016 to July 2021 were frozen, creating a liability of Rs 14,191 crore," he said.
Cheema further said that although the process of implementing the pay commission recommendations had been initiated under the previous regime, the subsequent Congress government remained in power without releasing a single rupee towards clearing the arrears, leaving the entire financial burden for the present government.
Explaining the steps taken by his government, Cheema said that after various employees approached the high court, the Punjab government had prepared a structured liquidation plan, which was accepted by the court. "Out of the total liability of Rs 14,191 crore, the AAP government has already paid over Rs 6,000 crore to employees. The high court accepted the liquidation plan, and its implementation is proceeding smoothly," he said.
Presenting comparisons between Punjab and central government pay scales for various posts, Cheema said, "The state government's legal argument was that a state could not simultaneously sustain both the highest basic pay scales and the highest central DA rates when the state's pay structures were already significantly higher." He added that the previous Congress government had itself decided that newly recruited employees would be inducted under Central Pay Commission guidelines.
Cheema said that despite inheriting a heavy fiscal burden from the previous SAD-BJP and Congress governments, the Punjab government remained fully committed to resolving all pending financial liabilities in a systematic and transparent manner.
(With PTI inputs)