Chandigarh, Sept. 3 -- Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Thursday said the state government was ready to ensure salary and dearness allowance (DA) parity with Central government employees if that was what its employees wanted, while stressing that the overall compensation package, rather than only the DA rate, should be considered.
Cheema, accompanied by Industries and Commerce Minister Aman Arora and Social Security Minister Baljit Kaur, accused the opposition of misleading employees and pensioners over the DA issue. He claimed Punjab government employees in several categories already receive higher take-home salaries than their Central counterparts and said the state pays among the highest salaries in the country.
The ministers' remarks came days after the Punjab government approached the Supreme Court against a High Court order directing it to release pending DA and dearness relief dues, estimated at around Rs 14,191 crore, within a fortnight.
Cheema blamed previous governments for leaving around Rs 14,000 crore in arrears and said the AAP government had cleared Rs 4,500 crore. He said DA was increased from 28 per cent when the government assumed office to 34 per cent in October 2022, 38 per cent in December 2023 and 42 per cent in 2024.
Arora said raising DA to 60 per cent would impose an additional annual burden of about Rs 6,500 crore on the state exchequer.
He urged employee unions to resolve outstanding issues through dialogue, saying the government's finances also had to support schools, hospitals and infrastructure.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.