No kutcha houses, no contractual employees in Punjab: CM
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday announced a "historic" decision to regularise the services of State Government's 35,000 Group C and D employees, saying " hun Punjab wich na koi kacha ghar rahega, na koi kacha mulazim (from now on in Punjab, there will be no kutcha house, and no contractual employee)".
Mann also made it clear that Punjab will now be free from dharnas and lathi-charge. "I do not want lathi-charge or turbans or chunnis of protesting employees to fall off...don't want them to face water cannons," he said in a video statement released on his official Twitter handle.
"Today AAP Punjab Govt has taken another historic decision and started the process to regularise 35,000 contractual Government employees...We're here to fulfil every promise made to people before the election. We've come to change the system," tweeted Mann along with the four-minute video.
In a move towards ending contractual recruitment in the State, Mann said that the Government will table the Bill for regularising the services of these employees in the next session of the Vidhan Sabha.
"I have directed the Chief Secretary Anirudh Tewari to prepare the draft of a Bill for regularising the services of these employees before the next Session of the Assembly...We will approve the draft legislation in the Assembly and regularise the employees engaged through contract and outsourcing," said Mann.
This is the second major decision by the AAP-led Punjab Government after the State Cabinet, in its first meeting, decided to fill 25,000 posts in the various departments, including 10,000 in the Police Department.
The AAP Government's decision came over four months after the previous Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress Government had announced to regularise the services of 36,000 employees working on contract, ad-hoc, work charged, daily wages and temporary basis in the State.
The Channi Government, on November 11, 2021, had even passed "The Punjab Protection and Regularisation of Contractual Employees Bill-2021", and forwarded it to Governor Banwarilal Purohit for his approval.
Amidst the delay on Governor's nod, the then Chief Minister Channi had even threatened to sit on dharna outside the Raj Bhawan 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".
Raising six queries pertaining to the pending court cases, reservation, and funding, the Governor had reverted the said Bill to the Chief Minister's Office on December 31 - days before the model code of conduct was put in force for State Assembly polls. Among other queries, the Governor had asked the Government to explain how the State Government proposes to meet the expenditure as a result of the implementation of the Bill.
Claiming that the AAP-led State Government is working day-in, day-out to take pro-people decisions, Mann said that these are also appreciated by the people. "During poll campaigning, several contractual employees approached us, met us. They used to say that they were working as contractual employees since 18 years, and the "Sword of Damocles" was hanging over them all the time. They said that they were paid less than the amount they were made to sign on paper, and most the part goes to the contractors or outsourcing companies. And we had promised to regularise them," said Mann.
Pointing out that contractual and outsourcing employees have been holding protests for a long time for the regularisation of their services, he said: "There was no chowk (intersection) or water tank where they were not holding protest."
He added that Government schools do not have teachers, while eligible teachers are protesting by climbing atop water tanks right outside these institutions for jobs. "No job creation is needed for this. We will do that too, but if we first fill the existing posts that are vacant, it would benefit many," he said.