Eligible contractual employees to be regularised soon, says Punjab minister

Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Wednesday said the services of all eligible contractual employees of the state government will be regularised soon.

He stated this in Patiala where he reviewed the status of ongoing development works as the minister in-charge of the district.

Cheema said the committee formed to regularise the contractual workers of the Punjab government has thoroughly discussed the issue in its meetings.

There are many guidelines of the Supreme Court and the departments too have their own rules to recruit the employees, which the committee is considering in depth, and the services of all those fulfilling the required criteria would be regularised soon, said an official release quoting Cheema.

All the eligible employees would get good news soon, Cheema said.

The Punjab government under Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had formed a three-member committee to explore ways and means to regularise the services of the contractual employees.

Besides Cheema, ministers Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer and Harjot Singh Bains are other two other members of this committee.

Cheema also said the fiscal health of the state would be improved soon. He blamed the previous government for not paying any attention to improving state finances for the past five years.

He alleged that the previous government did not even make efforts to increase the state’s revenue and remained dependent only on the goods and services tax compensation provided by the Union government.

Cheema further said Rs 6,200 crore was received from the excise last year and under the new excise policy, the target is to collect Rs 9,600 crore this year.

To a query regarding the Punjabi University, the finance minister said the government is serious about clearing the university's debt of Rs 150 crore while its annual grant has been increased from Rs 114 crore to Rs 200 crore.