HC NOTICE TO STATE ON DELAY IN SALARIES

CHANDIGARH : The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday put the Punjab government on notice for reportedly withholding salaries of employees of several departments, including teachers.

The public interest litigation (PIL) demands that a date must be fixed for crediting salaries into all employees’ accounts, failing which salary of administrative secretaries and other supervisory officers should also not be paid.

A division bench of justices AK Mittal and AS Grewal put the chief secretary on notice for May 31 on the petition of HC Arora, a lawyer, demanding immediate release of salaries of the departments of rural development and panchayats and local bodies and five Adarsh schools.

As many as 6,339 TGT /ETT teachers, 410 inclusive education volunteers, and 1,446 non-teaching staff under Sarv Sikhia Abhiyan are without salaries since December 2017, Arora said, adding that 6,800 computer teachers under the Punjab Information and Communication Technology Education Society (PICTUS) are without salaries since March this year. The court was also told that 2,300 panchayat secretaries in Punjab have not received salaries for last several months.

About 500 clerks of sewa kendras have not received salary for the last five months, Arora informed the court. ITI instructors have also not received salaries for several months, he said, adding that the situation in Punjab is akin to what prevails under financial emergency.

Arora also alleged that an employee on April 20 committed suicide as his salary was not released and in another instance another employee threatened to end life in a Whatsapp message to the Punjab state education secretary on April 25.