Punjab government employees and pensioners blocked the Chandigarh-Bathinda National Highway near Patiala for more than an hour on Saturday, pressing for pending dearness allowance dues, implementation of the Old Pension Scheme and delayed pay commission revisions.
The protesters, representing more than 200 unions under the Punjab Employees and Pensioners Joint Front, gathered near the residence of the chief minister before moving to the Patiala-Sangrur bypass flyover. Union representatives said the demonstration would be followed by statewide mass casual leave on October 21 and 22 if the government did not enter into formal negotiations on their demands.
The Joint Front has demanded payment of pending dearness allowance and dearness relief arrears, along with implementation of the Old Pension Scheme for employees appointed after 2004. Although the Punjab government issued a preliminary notification on the pension scheme in November 2022, the protesters said standard operating procedures have not yet been notified. Employees appointed after 2004 consequently remain covered by the National Pension System, according to the unions.
The protest comes amid judicial scrutiny of the state government’s handling of pending DA payments. On August 3, the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the government to clear pending instalments within two weeks and restrained it from spending on publicity campaigns until the backlog was cleared. The state government approached the Supreme Court, arguing that making the payment within a fortnight was “constitutionally impossible”. The High Court later issued a criminal contempt notice to the Punjab chief secretary over defective submissions concerning the status of the appeal.
Joint Front functionary Sukhchain Singh Khaira accused the government of delaying payments through legal proceedings while prioritising advertising expenditure. The front claimed that the pending dues affect eight lakh serving and retired personnel. The government recently notified an 8% increase in DA, taking it to 50% from October 1, but union representatives described the increase as a token measure. They also rejected a proposal to clear arrears over five years.
The unions further claimed that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had assured them that a follow-up settlement meeting would be held in the first week of October, but that the meeting did not take place. On Saturday, representatives said they rejected a proposed meeting with the chief secretary and sought a direct meeting with the chief minister instead.
Other demands include restoration of the Assured Career Progression scheme, withdrawal of the Rs 200 monthly development tax, an increase in the gratuity ceiling from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 25 lakh, pension revision using a 2.59 multiplication factor, withdrawal of the July 2020 order prescribing central pay scales for new recruits, regularisation of contractual workers and an increase in the medical allowance.
District administration officials received the unions’ memorandum in the evening. The Joint Front said the October 21-22 mass leave would go ahead unless the government reached a formal agreement with the employees and pensioners.
