Chandigarh: The Punjab govt has sought lists of employees who remained absent from duty without prior approval on Oct 21, the first day of a two-day mass casual leave called by government employees to press for their pending demands.In a letter to heads of departments and deputy commissioners, the department of general administration said it had come to its notice that employees in various departments had remained absent without obtaining leave approval from the competent authority.“You are directed to prepare a list of all such employees and forward [it] to the department of general administration,” the letter said.More than three lakh government employees had announced the two-day protest on Oct 21 and 22, demanding implementation of pending dearness allowance (DA), restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and regularisation of contractual staff. The protest affected the normal functioning of government offices across the state.The standoff began on Aug 27, when employees organised a ‘Maha Hartal’ in Jalandhar to press for their demands. Tensions escalated after the state govt issued show-cause notices and ordered punitive action against protesting employees, though the action was later withdrawn.
