Govt staff hold rally over pay scale, OPS

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 14

The Punjab State Ministerial Services Union (PSMSU) on Tuesday held a district-level rally outside the District Administrative Complex here, demanding the fulfillment of pending demands.

The rally was attended by employees from various departments, including clerical cadre employees. The demands of the employees included the implementation of the old pension scheme, revision of pay scale, full salary during the probation period, timely payment of dearness allowance (DA) and regularisation of outsourced and contractual employees.

Tejinder Singh Nangal, president, and Vinod Sagar, general secretary, said, "The government should address the demands of employees and fulfil them. If not, the union will be forced to take further action. We will hold a massive protest in Mohali on October 16 with a large participation of Jalandhar employees." Others who attended the rally were Dinesh Kumar, Amit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Amarpreet Singh Parmar, Sukhwinder Singh and Davinder Bhatti.

Meanwhile, the contractual employees of Punjab Roadways and Punbus held a protest at PAP Chowk against the implementation of kilometre scheme. The employees led by Ranjit Singh said the employment of thousands of drivers, conductors and mini bus operators would be affected due to the scheme.

The members gathered around noon and initially gave a deadline to the government to bring a solution to the problem by 2 pm. When nothing came up, they blocked the highway for about half an hour. Traffic police teams came in and got the highway opened. The employees were assured of relief after which they left the venue.