Mid-day meal employees union questions delay in job regularisation

Members of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan/Mid-Day Meal Office Employees Union today submitted a demand letter to AAP party president and cabinet minister Aman Arora and questioned him as to why the state bureaucracy was not heeding the orders of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Finance Minister Harpal Cheema and the party president himself.

The union members said that Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Cheema had issued orders to regularise the services of employees within a month. This was done after a meeting on November 6. On December 26, the officials had been asked to regularise the employees within 15 days after another meeting. However, they said, the Finance Minister’s orders were being ignored by the Finance Department and officials of the Personnel Department.

They added that the Chief Minister had issued written orders to regularise office employees on April 21, 2022 and Cabinet Minister Aman Arora had also issued orders from time to time, but the issue had not been resolved.

The union leaders said that after accepting the demands on March 14, 2024, the Advocate General of Punjab had also given his consent to regularise office employees on the lines of 8886 teachers and now there is no legal obstacle in making the employees permanent in the Education Department.

Issuing a press statement, leaders of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Mid-Day Meal Office Employees Union Shobhit Bhagat and Gagandeep Sharma said party president and cabinet minister Aman Arora assured the delegation that he would soon hold a panel meeting of the employees with the Chief Minister of Punjab. The union leaders informed that there had been salary cuts in December and January. Arora ordered officials to release the deducted salaries and asked them to expedite the work of

regularisation.