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Punjab Govt. workers reject Amarinder's Diwali bonanza

Staff Correspondent

"Rs. 750-crore package a step towards appeasement of workers"

CHANDIGARH: A foretaste of the shape of things to come in the run-up to the Punjab Assembly elections due early next year was available on Thursday when a number of organisations `rejected' the Rs.750-crore pre-poll Diwali bonanza announced by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh barely hours earlier.

Addressing reporters in the Civil Secretariat, Capt. Singh said the State Government had fulfilled its last promise made in the 2002 election manifesto by deciding to implement the `4-9-14 promotion schedule' as demanded by the Government employees. This, he said, would mean Rs.200-crore burden on the exchequer. The Chief Minister also announced a benefit of Rs.300 crores through grant of a 5 per cent interim relief under the Sixth Pay Commission. It had also decided to regularise the services of nearly 15,000 employees who for the past 10 years or more had been working on ad hoc work-charged and daily wage basis. The salaries of 4,600 computer trainers in Government schools had also been raised from Rs. 4,500 to 7,000 per month.

While claiming that employment had been given to all those who had received Elementary Teacher's Training, the Chief Minister announced that on Diwali the Government would also advertise for recruitment of 6,600 B.Ed. teachers.

However, within hours of his announcement various employees' organisations including the Punjab and Union Territory Joint Action Committee, Government School Lecturers' Union and the Mulazim Sangharash Committee rejected the offer. While some said that the programme was not being implemented with effect from January 1996, others said the announcements were a step towards appeasement after the Government's persistent refusal to entertain the genuine demands. Another opinion pointed towards the fact that the Government had hardly any time left to implement its announcements.

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