Punjab to regularise services of 35,000 govt employees
Darpan News Desk IANS, 22 Mar, 2022 10:32 AM
Chandigarh, March 22 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday announced the services of 35,000 group 'C' and 'D' contractual and outsourcing employees in government departments would be regularised.
Mann said he has directed Chief Secretary Anirudh Tewari to prepare the draft of a Bill for regularising the services of the employees before the next session of the Assembly.
"We will approve the draft legislation in the assembly and regularise the employees engaged through contract and outsourcing," he said in a video message, saying this will be the government's "historic decision".
Mann said contractual and outsourcing employees have been holding protests for a long time for the job regularisation. "There was no chowk (intersection) or water tank where they were not holding protest. I do not want lathicharge or turbans or chunnis of protesting staff to fall off," he said.
He said schools do not have teachers, while eligible teachers are protesting by climbing atop water tanks right outside the institutions for jobs. "No job creation is needed for this. We will do that too, but we have to first fill the existing jobs," he added.
Meanwhile, training guns at the Congress party on the third day of the first session of the Vidhan Sabha, Mann declared holiday on March 23, the martyrdom day of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, as a tribute to the great martyrs.
While replying to the issue raised by Congress' Gidderbaha MLA Amarinder Singh Raja Warring demanding to keep all the schools and colleges open on the martyrdom day instead of declaring a holiday, Mann said the holiday has been declared as a befitting tribute to these legendary martyrs.
Clarifying the rationale behind declaring a state-level holiday on this day, he said that earlier this holiday was only declared locally within Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district to facilitate the people from nearby areas to pay tributes at the martyr's memorial in his ancestral village Khatkar Kalan.
"Now, our government has decided to declare a gazetted holiday on this day across the state so as to enable the maximum number of people from across the state to pay their glowing tributes to the great martyrs, including students and teachers at both Khatkar Kalan and Hussainiwala, as these martyrs belong to the entire nation and thus can't be restricted to one place," he said.
Quipping at the spur of moment, Leader of House Mann asked Warring to tell the birthday of Bhagat Singh which he failed to reply.
Astonished over this, Mann asked Warring to note down that the birthday of great martyr Bhagat Singh falls on September 28.
Mann, however, said that his government has already planned to commemorate this day on a mega scale by organising a series of seminars, symposiums, declamation contests and several other events in schools, colleges besides other educational institutions across the state to apprise the youngsters with the ideology and philosophy of youth's icon.
The price of crude oil in the international market has reached $117 per barrel. According to experts, if the Russia-Ukraine war continues, then crude oil prices could reach $ 185 per barrel.
"Under 'Operation Ganga' to rescue Indian citizens, 1,314 Indians have been airlifted today by seven special civilian flights from Ukraine's neighbouring countries. With this, more than 17,400 Indians have been brought back since the special flights began on 22nd February, 2022."
Channi also said that 997 students from the state were in Ukraine, out of whom 420 have returned, and 200 students have reached Poland and are safe but some of the people are still stuck in Ukraine.
In 2017, the Aam Aadmi Party had got around 23 per cent votes but the projections for this election is 39 per cent, while Congress seems to have lost around 11 per cent votes, against in last election's over 38 per cent now, to around 26 per cent and may see its tally come down from 77 seats to 25 seats.
Harjot's brother Prabhjot Singh, who resides in Delhi's Chhattarpur, told IANS: "The last conversation I had with Harjot was on February 26 at 9 p.m. I haven't spoken to him since then. On March 2, at night, he contacted the family and informed them about his injuries.
While directing officials to ensure safe return of the remaining students and other persons stuck in Ukraine, he said the state government is sparing no effort to help the distressed families in this hour of crisis.
