Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday announced a special legislation to regularise contractual employees, along with a series of other initiatives to redress the long-pending grievances of the teachers and other state government employeesAssuring the employees that their genuine grievances, whose redressal had been delayed due to the state’s grave fiscal situation, would be settled at the earliest, the Chief Minister said he was fully cognizant of their problems and the government was working seriously to mitigate the same.During his speech in the Vidhan Sabha, the Chief Minister said while some of the grievances were taking longer to resolve because of the constraint of resources, his government had taken several decisions to mitigate some of the difficulties of the employees.Pointing out that the legislation enacted by the previous government had to be withdrawn as the High Court had threatened to strike it down, as it had done in the case of Haryana, the Chief Minister announced the decision to enact a special legislation for regularization of the contractual employees.Captain Amarinder Singh also announced that release of 6 percent of Dearness Allowance due to the employees had been notified, and his government had made reservation of 2 percent seats in all government vocational/professional colleges for wards of government employees (Group C and D).The government, said the Chief Minister, had decided that allotment of land be undertaken by Development Authorities, Improvement Trusts and MCs for Employees Cooperative Group Housing Societies at reserve price. The necessary scheme will be notified by the government for allotment of One Acre of land for 40 employees, he announced. Reservation of 3 percent of residential plots was being done for allotment to government employees by Development Authorities, MCs, Improvement Trusts or any other government agency, he further said.
In another major relief to the employees, the Chief Minister said the government was working to amend the Rules to provide for expeditious promotions through reduction in requisite qualifying service as following:
• No reduction if requisite qualifying service is two years or less;
• Reduction of one year if the requisite qualifying service is more than two years but less than five years;
• Reduction of two years if requisite qualifying service is seven years or more; and
• Reduction of three years if requisite qualifying service is ten years or more.
• The concerned departments would amend their respective service rules in this regard.
The Chief Minister flayed the previous SAD-BJP government for failing to address the woes of the employees or take any steps for their welfare. He reiterated his commitment to ensure that their genuine problems get resolved at the earliest.