Women staff of Punjab exempted from dope test

In all fairness to the ‘fair sex’, the Punjab Government has decided to exempt its women employees from undergoing the “mandatory” dope test.

Besides, the women employees, the Government may also give relief to the employees, who are on medication, on the basis of a medical certificate. In addition, the Government is also mulling to set an age-limit for the employees, possibly 45 or 50 years, who will also be exempted from the directives.

The decision is yet to get the final approval by the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, following which the Government will issue the notification on the same.

Notably, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh almost a week back had ordered to make dope tests mandatory for all government employees, including the police personnel, from the time of their recruitment through every stage of their service — impacting no less than 3.5 lakh employees.

Conducting dope tests of such a high number of employees demands for massive budget, in respect to infrastructure including the staff to conduct the tests, equipments, among other things.

However, the Government has already made such tests mandatory for the recruitment of constables and sub-inspectors, who are analyzed for drugs like morphine, amphetamine, marijuana and propoxyphene.

“Before finalising the notification, all aspects are being considered in detail. In discussion, it has come forth that the women employees and employees aging 45-50 years and above, have nothing to do with the drug addiction. So, we have decided to exempt them, but the final approval is yet to be taken from the Chief Minister,” a senior Government employee told The Pioneer.

The move to exempt women employees, and older employees came amidst massive protests by the employees associations and after the SAD MP from Bathinda and the Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal had demanded the same.

Harsimrat had asked Chief Minister not to subject women Government employees to dope tests arguing that it could have a traumatic effect on their psychology besides resulting in their stigmatisation.

She said that women employees, who constitute nearly 35 to 40 percent of the government cadre strength, have nothing to do with the drug menace sweeping the State, and “subjecting them to tests, which could even result in positive results due to medication, will stigmatize them and cause further turmoil in the society”.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA and the Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Sukhpal Khaira too demanded relaxation in the dope tests. “What is the point in having all approximately three lakh government employees undertake the dope test? Particularly woman employees, clerks, etc, who have no connection with the drug trafficking menace,” he had stated in aletter ti the Chief Minister.

Khaira had said that if all state employees were to take a dope test, “it will cost the public exchequer Rs 17-18 crores annually”.

The Punjab Civil Secretariat Staff Association, though welcomed the government’s decision of conducting dope test, had demanded that every single person, getting salary from the state exchequer, should undergo the check right from the Chief Minister or the Ministers, MLAs, among others.

At the same time, the Association has warned the State Government that if only the employees would be “targeted” and the proposed notification did not include the names of all those getting salaries from state treasury, “we would opposed the same with the cooperation of all district level associations and it will be difficult for the government to withstand it”.

Following the massive protests, the State Government is now going soft on its dope test directive and taking into account every single aspect before issuing the final notification.