Chandigarh, February 8: To avoid opening of another front against itself, the Congress government today raised Rs 600 crore by floating state development loan to pay salaries to its employees.
State farmers are already at loggerheads with the government for its being unable to rollout the debt waiver because of paucity of funds.
Sources said with the Centre not releasing Rs 633 crore due to Punjab, as compensation for the GST rollout, they had no option but to raise money from the market. As soon as the money was credited into the treasury today, orders for release of salaries for all employees were issued.
Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal told The Tribune that with the Centre still sitting over Punjab’s claim of Rs 633 crore, the government had to raise money from the market to meet this committed liability. “While we had released salaries worth Rs 1100 crore over the past few days, the due of Rs 600 crore has been released today,” he said.
The state government employees have been on the warpath for the past two days, seeking immediate release of their salaries for January. While employees had protested outside the office of the Irrigation Department yesterday, they held a dharna outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat today.
They employees are also demanding that their dearness allowance, pending for 22 months, be released without further delay. Officials in the Finance Department, however, say as of now, it appears nearly impossible that the dearness allowance (DA) instalments can be released during this fiscal.
News Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
