Release ₹4,000-cr DA instalments, arrears: Akali Dal
CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), on Monday, asked the Congress government to release instalments of dearness allowance (DA) and arrears amounting to ₹4,000 crore to state government employees.
Addressing reporters, former finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa also demanded regularisation of services of 27,000 employees on contract, as per an act that the Akali-bjp government had passed in a special assembly session. He also demanded the submission of the sixth Punjab Pay Commission Report.
“Never before in the history of the state had government employees been denied their genuine benefits as during the current Congress party government,” said Dhindsa, adding that employees had marked a black Diwali this year.
Demanding the release of all instalments of the DA, Dhindsa added that the government should also release half of the arrears due to employees as a belated Diwali bonus. “Arrears are always paid during Diwali as a festival gift,” he said, adding employees had also reminded finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal by beating utensils outside his home but the government had turned a deaf ear.
Dhindsa added that the SADBJP government had increased salaries of teachers working under different missions and programmes from ₹10,000 per
Never before in the history of the state had government employees been denied their genuine benefits as during the current Congress government. PARMINDER SINGH DHINDSA , former finance minister
month to ₹42,000 in ten years. “Now the same employees are being offered a flat salary of ₹15,000 per month, which is intolerable,” he said, adding that the government was mismanaging state finances, and was making up excuses of a financial crisis.
“Over the past 18 months, own tax growth has been negative and even excise and stamp duty collections have been below stated targets,” he claimed. He added that the state government was dependent on GST compensation to manage its day-to-day affairs, which was a whopping 36% of the total GST collection.