Demand revival of pre-2004 pension scheme, hold protest Our Correspondent Jalandhar, September 14 The Punjab Subordinate Services Federation held a protest rally at Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall here today. Raising slogans against the state government, the protesters, working with different government departments, reiterated their demands and threatened that in case their demands were not heeded soon, they would boycott the Congress in the upcoming byelections and take out a flag march across the state. Members of the federation said the employees had been working for the past many years, thus they should be brought directly under the ambit of the government department. They alleged that the state government had failed to deliver its promises. Contractual and outsourcing workers had been working on meagre salaries and not regularised yet. Addressing the agitators, press secretary of the federation Inderjit Singh said despite the fact that the government had accepted their demand to terminate the outsourcing system in recruitment and regularise the services of the contractual employees and daily wagers, nothing had been done in reality. He said demands, including regularisation of contractual staff and daily wagers under different agencies, implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations in a time-bound manner and release of their past four-month instalments of dearness allowance, had been pending since long while the state government was paying deaf ears to their pleas. Inderjit said ASHA workers were being paid hardly Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 per month while mid-day meal workers are getting Rs 1,700 per month which was very less to manage their family expenses. In neighbouring Haryana, ASHA workers are paid Rs 10,000 per month and mid-day meal workers Rs 14,000 per month which was three time more what the government in Punjab had been paying. The members demanded that the mid-day meal, ASHA, MGNREGA and anganwari workers must be given a minimum salary of Rs 18,000 per month. They also demanded that the pension scheme applicable before 2004 must be revived and implemented, adding that if the government did not fulfil their pending demands, the federation would intensify their stir in future and would hold a flag march across the state, boycotting the upcoming by-elections.

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