Ministerial staff strike for arrears continues

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 20

The pen-down strike by the Punjab State Ministerial Staff Union entered its eighth day on Wednesday. They staged a protest outside the Social Security Department here. Union district president Dalbir Singh Bajwa and general secretary Jagdish Thakur said the employees were demanding early release of DA installments, arrears, implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission report and revival of old pension scheme for the employees recruited after 2004.

Jagdish Thakur said visitors were a harried lot on Wednesday too as strike of the ministerial staff continued on the eighth day today. “We had tried to resolve the issues. The responsibility of the harassment of the public is of the state government,” he said.

Meanwhile, the joint consortium of various employees and pensioners association also staged a protest and burnt copies of the Budget. The consortium has been demanding regular jobs for contractual workers, release of arrears of dearness allowance and other issues. The consortium also demanded that staff of aided schools should be merged in government schools.

Convener of the consortium, Gurdeep Singh Bajwa, said the government was working against the interests of the employees and had been playing indifferent towards their problems.