Chandigarh, Aug. 28 -- Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday refused to meet the protesting employees' unions, hours before he was scheduled to meet them, even as a statewide strike brought work across government departments to a grinding halt, causing widespread inconvenience to people. "Employees are an important part of our family and we are ready to listen to every legitimate concern of theirs... But dialogue and strikes cannot proceed together," Mann posted on X before the scheduled meet at the Punjab Armed Police headquarters in Jalandhar at 1 pm. While the government said it would take action against absentee employees, the protesters struck a defiant note, saying they will decide on the next course of action on Sunday and announced they would burn effigies of the CM on Friday and Saturday. The state-wide "maha hartal," organised by the Punjab Sanjha Mulazam Manch, an umbrella coalition representing over 150 employee unions, saw nearly 400,000 staff members proceed on mass casual leave. They were joined by roughly 350,000 pensioners demonstrating outside district headquarters and government offices, demanding the release of the pending 18% dearness allowance (DA), the implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and regularisation of contractual employees. HTC...