India, Sept. 8 -- The Punjab government's administrative functioning ground to a near-halt on Tuesday as secretarial, directorate, deputy commissioner, and tehsil office staff took a collective one-day mass casual leave, demanding the immediate release of Rs.14,191 crore in pending dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) arrears accumulated over several years.

Protesting outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh, workers raised slogans against the state government for ignoring their financial grievances. While hospital and transport workers exempted themselves to maintain essential services, this marks the second state-wide shutdown in 10 days.

The unrest began on August 27 with an initial mass leave. Subsequent talks broke d...