The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has notified rules aligning the service conditions of all employees of the Union Territory of Chandigarh with the Central Civil Services.
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Chandigarh is the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, and 60% of employees are from Punjab and 40% are from Haryana.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had on March 27 announced that the service conditions of Chandigarh administration will be aligned with that of Central Civil Services and the retirement age of the Union Territory’s employees will increase from the existing 58 years to 60 years.
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The Union Territory of Chandigarh Employees (Conditions of Service) Rules, 2022 was notified on Tuesday.
The notification said: “The conditions of service of persons appointed to the services and posts in Group ‘A’, Group ‘B’ and Group ‘C’ under the administrative control of the Administrator of the Union territory of Chandigarh shall, subject to any other provision made by the President in this behalf, be the same as the conditions of service of the persons appointed to corresponding services and posts in Central Civil Services of the Government of India and shall be governed by the same rules and orders as are applicable to the latter category of persons.”
The same conditions as that of corresponding Group ‘C’ under the Central Civil Services would apply to the Group ‘D’ employees under the administrative control of the Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh, it said.
The notification said that the Administrator could revise the scales of pay of persons who were earlier drawing pay at the rates admissible to the corresponding categories of employees of the Government of Punjab.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Congress and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have opposed the move, terming it as an attempt to “snatch” Chandigarh from Punjab. The SAD has said that the decision was a violation of the spirit of the Punjab (Reorganisation) Act.