BJP leader Tarun Chugh on Thursday slammed the Congress government in Punjab over the sixth pay commission, saying its lopsided recommendations forced the government employees to go on pen-down strike across the state.
He demanded the resignation of Finance Minister Manpreet Badal for having "failed" to vet the recommendations of the sixth pay commission in view of the hardships faced by the government employees.
Mr Chugh, who is BJP's national general secretary, said if the BJP comes to power in the state next year, it would revise the recommendations for the benefit of the employees.
He said the state government should have held discussions with its employees to hear their grievances before implementing the pay commission recommendations.
"But the chief minister and the finance minister seemed to be plotting more for political gains out of it than to give real relief to the employees," Mr Chugh alleged in a statement issued.
The state government employees on Wednesday had gone on a five-day pen-down strike against the recommendations of the sixth pay commission.
The employees are objecting to the formula used in calculation of an increase in salary.
The Punjab government last week had decided to implement a majority of the recommendations of its sixth pay commission with effect from January 1, 2016, a move that will benefit over five lakh serving and retired employees.
The disbursal of salaries and pensions under the new structure will begin from July 1.
The implementation would entail 2.59 times increase in salaries and pensions over the previous pay commission recommendations, with an annual increment rate of three percent, resulting in pay scales of all existing employees, according to the government.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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