The government employees of at least three departments observed a pen-down strike for the second day on Tuesday across the State as a mark of protest against non-payment of their salaries for the month of November.
Hitting out the ruling Congress government, the Shiromani Akali Dal demanded that all benefits to Ministers, advisers and chairpersons be stopped till the time regular salaries are dispatched to the State employees.
Strike to go on
Several employees from the Irrigation, Technical Education and Industries departments are on a pen-down strike while the staff of PWD (B&R) also registered their protest against non-payment of salaries, said Sanjha Mulazim Manch convener Sukhchain Singh Khaira.
“Employees of the Industries department got their salaries today but those who have not received their salaries will continue their strike,” said Mr. Khaira, who is also president of the Punjab Civil Secretariat Association.
Former Finance Minister and Akali leader Parminder Singh Dhindsa alleged that while the Congress government was defaulting on payment of salaries to government employees, it had crores of rupees to splurge on Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s foreign visits and on appointments of advisers to accommodate the party leaders at the expense of the State exchequer.
“It is condemnable that a government which was collecting the highest taxes in the country was unable to pay the November salaries of more than 70,000 employees. Despite this, the government released the salaries of Ministers and advisers. This shows that the Congress is only interested in looting the State exchequer by doling out benefits to its own party men,” said Mr. Dhindsa.
The Akali leader also demanded that all benefits being given to the Ministers, advisers and chairpersons be stopped immediately.
Poor GST collection
Stating that this crisis was self-inflicted, Mr. Dhindsa said the Punjab government’s performance vis-a-vis GST collection was the worst in the country with the State recording maximum shortfall of 44% in revenue collection through GST in the first five months of 2019-20.
