Punjab civil services bill withdrawn

CHANDIGARH: Sensing trouble in the impending assembly elections in February 2012, the Punjab government beat a hasty retreat by retracting the Punjab Civil Services Bill that had been passed in the budget session of Assembly.
The Bill had generated unrest among the government employees, especially those, who had joined recently or had been regularized.This included professionals, teachers and doctors. The Bill entailed that during the period of induction of three years, a person appointed under the Act will be entitled to all inclusive fixed monthly salary equal to the minimum of the pay band of his post.
Apart from getting just the basic salary, the employees faced termination of services on direct recommendation by their seniors after three years of service. Chief secretary S C Aggarwal acknowledged that the Bill had been withdrawn by the government during the cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The bill had been passed in the budget session, amid protests by Congress MLAs, including Sunil Jakhar, who had said that it will be counter productive and create a rift among employees.
It was sent for the governor`s approval and a formal notification issued on April 5 bringing it into effect. Thousands of employees, including over 1,100 doctors working in the rural areas, who were recently regularized by the state government under the provisions of the Act had joined only under protest.
Reacting to the cancellation, Abohar MLA Jakhar, said: "This shows that the state is being run on impulses and a knee jerk reaction. The government is not clear about what they want, their goals are not well defined or focused. This cancellation is simply a fall out of double speak and incompetency."