Capt Amarinder castigates Badal govt over stepmotherly treatment to Secretariat staff

Chandigarh, December 9, 2016: Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday condemned the Badal government for the stepmotherly treatment shown to the Civil Secretariat staff, who have not been paid their DA and pensionary benefits, while the government is busy spending crores on birthday and election rallies.

In a statement, Captain Amarinder extended his support to the employees, who had on Thursday staged a protest dharna and march, and suspended work for several hours against the government’s failure to address their demand for immediate release of their pending dues.

Captain Amarinder also condemned the damage control attempts of the civil servants, who he said were obviously toeing the line of their political masters to cheat the secretariat staff of their rightful dues. The bureaucrat officials at the secretariat had been pressurizing the agitating staff to give up their protest by promising to take up the matter with the chief minister.

This, said Captain Amarinder, clearly showed the extent to which the bureaucracy in the state was under the control of the ruling political dispensation. He expressed concern over this bureaucrat-politician nexus, which he said was destroying the institutional fabric of the state.

While the government was spending crores on pushing its electoral agenda, the Finance Secretary was reportedly telling the protesting employees that bills worth Rs. 3500 crore were pending with the state treasury, Captain Amarinder pointed out, citing reports of Rs. 5 crore having been spent in celebrating Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s birthday at the Moga rally on Thursday.

Even the Election Commission has taken cognizance of the expenditure incurred by the Akali government on putting up hoardings, posters etc across the state on public expense with an eye on the forthcoming Assembly elections, said Captain Amarinder.

The Punjab Congress, said Captain Amarinder, stands by the government employees and will address their problems on priority basis once elected to power in the state. The Badals, he said, had been plundering the state for the past 10 years, not sparing even the government employees. Captain Amarinder promised the employees that he would take immediate steps to rectify the situation once he is back at the helm of the state’s affairs after the Assembly polls.