CHANDIGARH: With eye on the forthcoming elections, Punjab Cabinet in order to please the state government employees today approved regularization of the services of 5,178 teachers besides 650 nurses and enhanced the emoluments of veterinary pharmacists and safai sewaks. It also approved affordable housing scheme for all government employees.
The cabinet decided that the teachers were recruited by the education department, with full pay scales to be
implemented from October 1, 2019. Of the 5178 category teachers, 5078 were recruited in the Master cadre and 100 as Classical & Vernacular (C & V) Teachers by the Department in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
The cabinet also decided that the services of those teachers recruited during 2014, 2015 and 2016 would be regularised at full scale on completion of their two-year probation. The cabinet has reduced the probation period from three years to two years. Further, the teachers would be assigned seniority from the date of completion of their probation period.
These teachers are currently paid Rs 7500 per month and their salary would be now fixed at minimum of grade pay of Rs 15,300 per month till the time they are given full scale.
The teachers have been protesting for several months now, demanding regularisation and even threatening to launch a campaign against the government in the ensuing polls.
The cabinet has also regularized 650 nurses of the Health Department as per the department’s probation rules. These contractual nurses had been agitating for some time for regularization at basic pay.
To ensure affordable housing for government employees, the cabinet okayed allotment of land by Improvement Trusts and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) for Employees Cooperative Group Housing Societies (CGHS) at reserve prices.
The scheme would be soon notified with complete details by the State Government for allotment of one acre of land for forty employees on the pattern of Maharashtra. It also gave its nod to reserve 3 per cent of residential plots for the allotment of government employees by ULBs and Improvement Trusts.
The cabinet also decided to enhance the emoluments of service providers (Veterinary Pharmacists) and Safai Sewaks of the Rural Development Department. While the emoluments of service providers have been increased from Rs 8000 to Rs 9000 per month, those of Safai Sewaks have gone up from Rs 4000 to Rs 4500 per month with effect from July 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019, on the pattern of service providers (Health Pharmacists and Safai Sewaks).