CHANDIGARH: With less than six months to go for the 2027 assembly elections and tensions mounting among nearly 7.5 lakh government employees and pensioners, the AAP-led Punjab government on Thursday made a fresh attempt to defuse the confrontation by deputing three senior cabinet ministers to hold talks with the protesting workforce.
The move comes ahead of the employees’ announcement of a second mass casual leave on September 8 and days after the state government filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging a Punjab and Haryana High Court order directing it to release pending dearness allowance (DA) dues to employees and pensioners.
The government also strongly defended its record on salaries, DA and arrears.
In a joint media briefing, Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, Industry and Renewable Energy Minister Aman Arora and Social Security Minister Dr Baljit Kaur said the government was ready to sit across the table with employees and pensioners to address their grievances.
Cheema said Punjab was spending 51 per cent of its revenue on salaries and pensions, the highest among states, compared with the all-India average of 38 per cent. He said the state had increased DA by 14 percentage points in three installments since 2022, from 28 per cent to 34 per cent in October 2022, to 38 per cent in December 2023 and to 42 per cent in November 2024.
He said Punjab’s own tax revenue was considerably lower than the national average, making the expenditure particularly significant.
On the pending DA arrears, Cheema said the state had inherited a liability of Rs 14,191 crore from previous governments, including the Congress and SAD-BJP regimes.
“We did not create this liability. We inherited it. The government had submitted a liquidation plan which was accepted by the court and was being implemented,” he said, adding that more than Rs 4,500 crore had already been released to employees and pensioners against the inherited liability.
“No previous government ever committed to pay the DA arrears. We are the only government that committed to paying the past arrears. These payments were being made in monthly installments,” he said.
Cheema targets BJP over DA parity
Responding to the BJP’s allegations that Punjab was violating the principle of equality under Article 14 by not matching the centre’s DA rates, Cheema questioned why similar questions were not being raised about BJP-ruled states such as Haryana and Gujarat.
“If you say we are violating Article 14, what is happening in Haryana and Gujarat? Are you not violating this provision of law there?” he asked.
Cheema further claimed that Haryana employees received around 13 per cent less salary than their Punjab counterparts and challenged the BJP to demand salary parity for Haryana employees with those in Punjab.
He said he was scheduled to meet representatives of 10 employee unions on Thursday and reiterated that the government was willing to hold discussions.
On action against employees who remained absent on August 27, Cheema said the government was proceeding against “illegal absenteeism” in accordance with the law.
He also said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had made it clear that employees could not simultaneously be on strike and hold talks with the government.
Punjab AAP Chief appeals to employees
Punjab AAP President Aman Arora appealed to employees and pensioners, describing them as the “backbone of the government”.
At the same time, he alleged that opposition parties were using employees as a political tool.
Referring to the implementation of the Pay Commission in 2016-17, Arora said neither the SAD-BJP government nor the Congress government had adequately addressed the DA issue at the time. He accused the Congress of making commitments to employees and subsequently “stabbing them in the back”.
Arora said the government was committed to resolving pay anomalies in cases where Punjab employees were drawing less than their counterparts under central government scales.
He said paying DA at the required levels would entail an annual expenditure of around Rs 6,500 crore, which, he argued, could otherwise be utilised for schools, healthcare and infrastructure.
Government defends DA rules
Dr Baljit Kaur said the relevant rules had been framed in 2021 and that the state was paying DA in accordance with them.
She added that there was no provision under the state rules making it mandatory for Punjab to pay DA at the same rate as the central government.
The ministers’ outreach comes after government employees observed a mass casual leave on August 27 over demands including payment of pending DA arrears. The government subsequently directed departments to issue show-cause notices to employees who participated in the mass leave and the “Maha Hartal”.
Employees seek withdrawal of show-cause notices
Sukhchain Singh Khera, coordinator of the Sanjha Mulazim Manch, the umbrella body of 154 state-level employees’ unions, said employees were ready to hold talks with the government, but only after the show-cause notices issued to them were withdrawn.
“We gave the notice to the government of August 27 mass leave and asked the government to talk before that, but it did not, and on the same day it said talks will take place. Then we went to PAP Jalandhar to have a meeting with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, but at the last minute he cancelled it by putting a post on X,” he said.