CHANDIGARH: With less than four months left for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is set to face a fresh round of protests by government employees and pensioners, who have rejected the three per cent Dearness Allowance (DA) hike announced by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as a “Diwali gift”.
Nearly four lakh government employees and 3.5 lakh pensioners have termed the increase inadequate. Their unions will begin a month-long escalation of protests on November 13 with a sit-in at Sangrur, Mann’s hometown. The agitation will culminate in a proposed human chain from Shambhu to Amritsar on December 13.
The unions said employees and pensioners would not accept piecemeal announcements and would continue their agitation until the government fulfilled its commitments and addressed their demands. These include the release of outstanding DA arrears and unpaid dues under the Sixth and Seventh Pay Commissions, payment of the remaining 10 per cent DA, implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), restoration of old pay scales and allowances, and withdrawal of policies affecting service conditions.
They said the previous government had notified the OPS but alleged that the present government had failed to provide an implementation framework nearly four years later.
Leaders of the Joint Coordination Committee of Employee and Pensioner Unions, Sukhchain Khera and Gurnam Singh Virk, said the agitation would begin with a sit-in at Sangrur from November 13 to 19. The unions will shift their protest venue from Chandigarh for the sit-in.
From December 1 to 5, employees and pensioners will protest outside the residences of all 91 AAP MLAs in their respective constituencies and burn effigies of the ruling party. On December 6, the ashes of the effigies will be immersed in the Budha Nullah.
“On December 13, the unions plan to form a human chain from Shambhu to Amritsar to demonstrate solidarity among government employees and highlight their demands,” they added.
The union leaders accused the government of making misleading claims on employee-related issues. They played video clips of AAP leaders, including Mann announcing the implementation of the OPS in November 2022, as well as earlier statements by AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal and Finance Minister Harpal Cheema supporting the scheme before the party came to power in Punjab.
The leaders also disputed the government’s claim that Punjab employees were drawing the highest salaries in the country. They challenged its contention that pending DA instalments had been left behind by previous governments and alleged that it was projecting the payment of Sixth Pay Commission arrears as clearance of DA dues. They claimed that 10 per cent DA remained pending and demanded its immediate release.
“Only seven per cent DA was pending when the Congress lost the election. The SAD-BJP government had not left any pending DA,” Khera said.
The announcement came a day after Mann announced a three per cent DA hike, taking the total DA to 53 per cent. According to the government, the increase will entail an additional expenditure of Rs 90 crore a month.
Two months ago, the government had announced an eight per cent DA hike. Mann said the two instalments would result in an additional annual expenditure of Rs 3,988 crore.