Chandigarh, Nov. 4 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) on Tuesday issued a fresh contempt notice to the Punjab chief secretary over the non-compliance with an order regarding the release of dearness allowance (DA), estimated at Rs.37,000 crore by the state government, to its employees and pensioners.

The contempt proceedings against the chief secretary stem from the HC's August 3 ruling, which ordered the state to release the pending DA installments to employees and pensioners on par with the central government rates paid to All India Services (IAS/IPS/IFS) officers within a fortnight. The court also barred the state from indulging in "unproductive expenditure", such as large-scale print or social media advertisement campaigns, unt...