In a bid to placate protesting teachers and other government employees ahead of the parliamentary polls, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday announced a special legislation to regularise contractual employees in Punjab.

The chief minister, who made the announcement while replying to the discussion on the governor’s address, said he was cognisant of their problems and was working seriously to mitigate the same. “The government will take other initiatives to redress the long-pending grievances of the teachers and other state government employees. Their genuine grievances, whose redressal had been delayed due to the state’s grave fiscal situation, will be settled at the earliest,” he said.

The chief minister’s announcement was aimed at 37,000-odd contractual employees, mostly from the education department, who have been up in arms against his government for failing to fulfil its election promise. The Congress had, in its manifesto for the 2017 state assembly elections, promised to regularise all ad hoc and contractual employees and remove discrepancies in their salaries. Though thousands of teachers have been staging protests in Patiala, the CM’s home district, he had not met them even once despite repeated assurances.

The CM said his government had notified release of 6% dearness allowance and made reservation of 2% seats in all government vocational/ professional colleges for wards of government employees (Group C and D).

During the chief minister’s speech, Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) MLA Simarjeet Bains and Balwinder Bains sat in the well of the House holding placards to press their demands.

Referring to a probe being conducted by the special investigation team (SIT) of Punjab Police into sacrilege incidents and the consequent police action at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura in 2015, the CM said the matter would go very high.

“I do not want to talk about this further. The findings of the Ranjit Singh Commission have already come out,” he said, hitting out the previous Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) government. The SIT has arrested two senior cops in the firing incident so far, but Congress ministers such as Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa are not satisfied and want action against the Badals as well.

The chief minister also launched a scathing attack on the Badals for destruction of all institutions of governance in the state. “What was happening during their regime was not governance, but ‘danda raaj’, with orders – legal and illegal – being passed by one family,” the chief minister said further.

He said no rules, regulations, laws or constitutional principles and provisions were followed during the previous regime and it was the halqa in-charges, working at the behest of the Akali leadership, who were calling the shots.

The chief minister also criticised the Akalis for their “irresponsible and unruly behaviour” in the House, saying that it was unfortunate the way the finance minister’s speech was disrupted for petty political gains.

He also urged the opposition parties to join the efforts of his government to ensure a befitting celebration of the 550th Parkash Utsav of first Sikh master Guru Nanak.

First Published: Feb 21, 2019 14:58 IST