Patiala, June 23:- PWD and Workshop Workers Union have protested against the Punjab government for the resolution of their pending demands and warned that if the government does not take the demands seriously, a massive protest rally and flag march will be taken out in Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema's constituency Dirba on July 21, 2026.
On the call of the state committee, PWD and Workshop Workers Union Patiala Zone held protest rallies in front of Water Supply and Sanitation Division No. 1, Division No. 2 and Mechanical Office under the leadership of Zone President Kuldeep Singh Ghagga, Vice President Dharampal Singh Lot and Malkit Singh Bhutana. During this, strong slogans were raised against the Punjab government and memorandums were submitted to the executive engineers in the name of Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema.
Addressing the protest rallies, former state president Darshan Singh Belumajra, state leader Rajpal Singh Lasoi, Jasvir Singh Khokhar, Zone Secretary Lakhwinder Singh Khanpur, Harbir Singh Sunam, Arjan Singh Rajpura, Darshan Singh Fatehgarh Sahib, President of Joint Action Committee Rajindra Hospital Swaran Singh Banga, President of Darjachar Employees Union Monica Masih, Rajinderpal Singh, Sukhdev Singh Rajpura, Pargat Singh Samana, Jasvir Singh Panjoula, Piara Singh Patran, Gurcharan Singh Dhanoa, Dayal Singh Sidhu, Davinder Singh, Deepak Kumar, Swaran Singh, Ram Avtar, Ugarsen and Vijay Kumar JE condemned the government's anti-employee policies.
The leaders said that the Punjab government has not fulfilled the promises made regarding the panchayatisation and privatisation of water supply schemes, regularisation of outsourced employees, promotions of grade-four employees, conducting examinations and providing jobs to the heirs of death cases. They demanded that the outsourced, enlisted and delivery employees be made permanent without any conditions and that the minimum salary for raw employees be fixed at Rs 30,000 per month.
They said that the privatisation and panchayatisation of departments should be stopped immediately, regular recruitment should be made on the vacant posts, transfers made in the irrigation department should be cancelled, the arrears of pay commission and outstanding installments of DA should be released.
The union leaders also demanded that the employees who have passed the grade-four test should be promoted to grade-three, the benefit of 20:30:50 scheme should be given to grade-three employees and the remaining eligible employees should also be given promotions.
The leaders warned that if the Punjab government does not resolve these demands soon, the struggle will be intensified by holding a massive protest rally and flag march in the constituency of Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema at Dirba on July 21, 2026. On this occasion, a large number of union leaders and employees including Kuldeep Verma, Jeet Bahadur, J.E. Lakhwinder Singh, Jaswinder Belumajra, Fatehgarh Sahib were present.