Chandigarh, March 3, 2021 (Yes Punjab News)
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today burnt an effigy of the Congress government outside the Vidhan Sabha to protest against the injustices being done to State employees besides staging a walk out in the assembly when a substantive motion moved by the party to discuss the issue threadbare was rejected by the Speaker.
The SAD legislators, led by party legislative group leader Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, assembled outside the Vidhan Sabha in the morning and burnt an effigy of the Congress government to express solidarity with government employees.
Raising slogans including “Pay Commission Lagu Karo” and “Mulazama Da Bakaya Jaari Karo”, SAD legislators said the Congress party had withheld around Rs 6,000 crores due to government employees on account of Dearness Allowance. They said similarly the government was deliberately delaying the Sixth Pay Commission by giving repeated extensions to it and not asking the Commission to submit its report.
Mr Sharanjit Dhillon said the Congress party had promised that it would regularize contractual employees in its very first cabinet meeting after forming the government. “It is four years but this has still not been done”.
The legislators also demanded that all new recruits should get salary as per the Punjab scale and that giving them pay as per the lower central pay scales as announced by the government amounted to discrimination against them. They also condemned the government for abolishing thousands of jobs in the name of restructuring government departments.
Later the SAD legislators held a protest in the well of the House and staged a walk out when Speaker Rana K P Singh rejected the substantive motion moved by SAD mla Harinderpal Singh Chandumajra demanding a discussion on the discrimination being meted out to government employees.
The SAD mlas condemned the Speaker for rejecting the motion on the ground that this was not a current issue. “What can be more current than this”, they asked while accusing the Speaker of playing a partisan role. EOM
