Prepoll promise of regularisation: Employees drag Punjab to court
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday issued notice to the Punjab government on a petition moved by some employees of the department of rural development and panchayats, seeking regularisation of their services as announced by the government before state assembly elections.
The notice was issued by the bench of justice Jaishree Thakur seeking response by May 1 on the petition of Ramesh Kumar and others, who are working in block samiti, Dorangla, since October 2013. Petitioners’ counsel Kapil Kakkar said his clients waited for more than two months, but the government is dilly-dallying even after enacting a law for regularisation of services of contractual, temporary, ad-hoc and work-charged employees on December 24, 2016.
They have sought directions to the state government to regularise their services forthwith and also pay them regular pay scales.
Kakkar said these employees fall in the category of those who were to be benefited after the state assembly passed the Punjab Ad-hoc, Contractual, Daily Wage, Temporary, Work Charged and Outsourced Employees’ Welfare Bill-2016 in a special session. The bill was subsequently notified.
As per the law, the services of about 27,000 employees who had completed continuous service of three years on the date of notification of December 24, 2016, were to be regularised. But the same has not been done.
Kakkar said that the petitioners fulfil all terms and conditions laid down in the Act. The employees cannot work with uncertainty and that too on payment of meagre salary. The said action of the state clearly amounts to the exploitation of employees, the court was told. Kakkar also said that hundreds of members of the Contractual Employees’ Action Committee have been on a relay fast for the past 15 days, protesting against the delay in regularisation. The Election Commission has clearly stated that no approval is required for providing employees with regular jobs. But the state government is not passing any order in this regard, he added.