The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today appealed to government employees to support the party which has worked tirelessly for their welfare, even as it welcomed the Punjab and Haryana high court order directing the Punjab government to clear Dearness Allowance (DA) arrears of Rs 14,191 crore within fifteen days and condemned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for denying the same benefit to the employees.
Addressing a press conference here, senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said the anti-employee attitude of the AAP government had also been exposed in court. “The government tried its best to deny the DA benefits to employees on one pretext or the other.
It formed a three member committee consisting of senior leaders Harpal Cheema, Aman Arora and Baljit Kaur which recommended that there was no need to give additional DA benefits to State employees as their benefits were at par or even better than the centre. It also cited the fact that the State was in the midst of an economic crisis and even asserted that it was not bound to follow the central government vis a vis DA revisions”.
Asserting that all these facts were on record in the court file, Mr Bikram Majithia said the government was saying one thing in public and another in court. “Guru Dokhi chief minister Bhagwant Mann claims the State economy is doing well but the government is saying the opposite in court.
Similarly the AAP government hype on development has also been crushed with its own admission in court in which it has stated that the majority of State funds are being spent on salaries, pensions, loan installments and subsidies”.
Stating that even now the AAP government did not have any intention of clearing the DA dues within fifteen days as directed by the court, Mr Majithia said the government had approached the court today morning itself to allow the payment to be done in installments. “Even as it is doing all this, it has spent around Rs 8,000 crore on advertisements and public events.
It is also allowing its ministers like Harjot Bains to claim government travel allowances for foreign tours despite not having political clearance for the same. Crores are also being spent to ferry AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal all over the country on chartered planes at Punjab government expense. All this money could have been used to protect the welfare of government employees”, he added.
Mr N K Sharma, who also addressed the press conference, disclosed that all Pay Commissions including the third, fourth and fifth Pay Commission had been implemented by erstwhile SAD governments. He said former chief minister S Parkash Singh Badal had also created a record by hiking the DA by 125 per cent.
Appealing to the employees to decide whom they should support in the next Vidhan Sabha elections on merit, Mr Sharma said “the SAD is the lone party which has stood by you. Even the erstwhile Congress government reduced your allowances”. He also announced that the SAD was committed to restoration of the Old Pension Scheme as demanded by State employees besides resolution of all their other demands.