Chandigarh: Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring condemned the police action on the state govt employees who have been demanding payment of their pending dearness allowance (DA).Warring said the DA was their rightful due and they must get it and AAP govt is bound to pay it to them.The PCC president alleged that chief minister Bhagwant Mann and finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema not only betrayed the employees, but also used brute police force against them.He asked if AAP govt can splurge and squander away precious money of Punjab for election campaigns in Gujarat and Goa, why can’t it spare some money for its own employees and pay their long-pending DA instalments?Questioning the intentions of AAP govt, he pointed out how it was even resisting high court orders by appealing against the DA payment in Supreme Court. It is unprecedented that not only is govt refusing to pay the employees their dues, but it is also opposing them in the courts, Warring added. “Which govt opposes its own employees and that too when their demands are justified?” he asked.Expressing his solidarity with the employees, Warring said Congress would use all its strength and resources to get the employees their rightful due.He also questioned AAP govt’s backing out of restoring the old pension scheme in the state. He said Congress govts in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan earlier and now in Himachal Pradesh have already restored the OPS for govt employees and will do the same in Punjab as well.
