CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has announced that 35,000 Group C and D government employees will be regularised.
Mann said that he has directed chief secretary Anirudh Tewari to prepare the draft of a bill for regularising the services of these employees before the next session of the Assembly. "We will approve the draft legislation in the Assembly and regularise the employees engaged through contracts and outsourcing," he said.
"I have held meetings with all officers in the government and asked the chief secretary to stop the practice of contractual employment. Schools have no teachers, but eligible teachers are climbing atop water tanks to protest against the government for not regularising their services. They have to be adjusted according to the vacant posts," said Mann.
He said they want to implement this at the earliest, by getting the bill passed in the Assembly since he does not want these teachers to be protesting on the roads. Before elections, AAP had promised it would regularise these services, if voted to power.
Interestingly, the previous Congress government had also decided to regularise around 36,000 employees working on a contractual, ad hoc or temporary basis. The then government had on November 11 passed the Punjab Protection and Regularisation of Contractual Employees Bill 2021 and sent it to Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit for approval. But on January 2, the bill was sent back by the governor raising queries.
Meanwhile, the Assembly has adopted a unanimous resolution moved by the Leader of the House and CM Mann to install statues of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, Bharat Ratna Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar and Sher-e-Punjab Maharaja Ranjit Singh inside the complex of the Assembly.