Patiala, November 7 (Manpreet Singh):- Fourth-class employees, both temporary and permanent, of government and semi-government departments staged a protest against the government on the occasion of Diwali. They said that describing the 3 per cent instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA), announced by the Chief Minister, as a Diwali gift amounted to betraying employees and pensioners. They alleged that no relief had been provided to outsourced workers, other temporary employees and scheme workers for a long time, nor had their salaries been increased. They also termed the Chief Minister's and Finance Minister's statements about adjusting these employees in government departments as deceptive, claiming that not even a single outsourced employee had been absorbed in any of the approximately 51 government and semi-government departments. Protesting against what they described as the government's betrayal, employees wore black robes and staged a demonstration. They said that the government had continuously failed to address the issues of employees, pensioners and restoration of the Old Pension Scheme. They added that the impact of these issues would be seen in the 2027 Assembly elections.
Before Diwali, the employees raised forceful slogans against the government, declaring: “A government that cannot provide a livelihood is incompetent; an incompetent government must be changed.” They reiterated their demand that the minimum salary of all temporary employees be fixed at Rs. 40,000. They also demanded that employees be regularised without delay, the Old Pension Scheme be restored, and Dearness Allowance and its arrears be released soon. The demand for restoration of the special annual increment granted to fourth-class employees in 2011 was also strongly raised. They further demanded the resolution of the union's 16-point charter of demands.
Addressing the protest rally through this press note, Darshan Singh Lubana and Ram Lal Rama said that while regularising daily-wage workers of the Forest Department, the Bhagwant Mann government had reduced their qualifying service by two years, bringing their retirement age down from 60 to 58 years. They alleged that another major injustice had been done to these workers by reducing their existing salary of Rs. 16,500 to a fixed amount of Rs. 15,000. They described this as economic exploitation and said that, under the rules, an employee's existing salary cannot be reduced.
Those present on the occasion included Shiv Charan, Parkash Lubana, Inderpal Walia, Balwinder Singh, Tarlochan Maru, Subhash, Harbans Singh Verma, Rajesh CMO, Dharminder, Rishav, Darshan Singh Mallewal, Ram Jodha, Ajay Happy, Vicky Sanaur, Jaswinder, Kala Ram, Buddh Ram, Karma Nabha, Pawan Kumar and Tarlochan Mandoli, among others.
