Nawanshahr - Teacher leaders Ganesh Bhagat, Balveer Bhagat, Mulakh Raj, Hemraj, Harvinder Singh, Baljit Bhagat, Pradeep Bhagat, regarding the announcement by the central government to increase the dearness allowance of its employees and pensioners from 46% to 50% from January 1. Surinder Kumar, and Kishan Lal through a joint statement said that the Punjab government should give dearness allowance to its employees and pensioners just like the central government.
Along with this, the housing allowance should be increased from 20 lakhs to 25 lakhs for pensioners retiring from service. He said that the Punjab government claims to take the state from the lines of development and describes itself as pro-employee, but the employees and pensioners of the state government are still getting 12 percent less DA than the central employees and only 38 percent inflation. They are living on allowance only. He said that if the Bhagwant Mann government ignores the demands of the pensioners, it may have to bear the consequences in the Lok Sabha elections.