BARELY days into the regime change in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party authorities within the state and Center have locked horns. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has threatened protests from “streets to Parliament” towards Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s announcement that March 28 onwards, Central service guidelines will apply to workers of the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
Calling the transfer opposite to the Punjab Reorganization Act, Mann tweeted: “Central Govt has been stepwise imposing officers and personnel from other states and services in the Chandigarh administration.”
The Congress and Akali Dal are on the identical web page as AAP on the matter, with leaders throughout events calling it “another big blow to the rights of Punjab”. Akali Dal patriarch and former CM Parkash Singh Badal stated the Center “wants to usurp the rights of Punjab over Chandigarh”.
The announcement
The Union Territory of Chandigarh workers at the moment work below Punjab service guidelines. Shah stated the shift to Central guidelines will profit them in a “big way” as their retirement age will likely be raised from 58 to 60 years, and ladies workers will get childcare depart of two years as an alternative of the present one yr.
The demand to implement Central service guidelines for Chandigarh workers had been pending for 20-25 years.
The politics
Parties in Punjab are seeing Shah’s announcement, which was not anticipated, in context of the municipal polls held in December in Chandigarh, wherein the BJP was surprised by AAP. Chandigarh is taken into account a BJP stronghold however in December, AAP had taken away many of the 14 seats. The BJP had managed to win the mayoral put up nevertheless it was a contested resolution after one vote was declared invalid.
The BJP is seen to be making an attempt to woo UT workers, with the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in thoughts, realizing it wants all the assistance it could actually get given the latest Assembly outcomes.
The BJP argument
Senior chief and former Chandigarh MP Satya Pal Jain claimed that the Punjab authorities was not capable of settle for the suggestions of assorted pay commissions for its workers, whereas the Center had in a single go accepted a long-pending demand of UT workers. While earlier UT workers would get wage, allowances and so on on the Punjab sample, they are going to get the identical on the sample of the Central authorities, which might be extra useful to them, he stated.
Jain additionally stated the choice wouldn’t influence Punjab. “When they are our employees, how does the announcement impact Punjab? We had been pursuing the case with the Prime Minister and Home Minister for quite some time now… This decision does not go against the interest of any state.”
The Punjab Reorganization Act, Chandigarh standing
In 1966, when Punjab was break up into Punjab and Haryana, with some territory to Himachal Pradesh, each states claimed Chandigarh as their capital. Pending a decision, the Center declared Chandigarh a Union Territory. As per the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966, Chandigarh was to be ruled by the Center however legal guidelines in power in undivided Punjab have been to be relevant to the UT.
While initially its high officer was the chief commissioner who reported to the Union Home Ministry, later the officers have been drawn from the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories) cadre. In 1984, the Punjab governor was made administrator of the town at a time when the area was battling terrorism. Now, the put up of ‘advisor to the administrator’ handed on to AGMUT-cadre IAS officers.
As per directions by the Home Ministry, the officers and workers of Chandigarh UT (together with academics and docs) have to be drawn from Punjab and Haryana within the ratio of 60:40, respectively
The Haryana authorities, which is led by the BJP, has thus far maintained silence on Shah’s announcement.
Earlier controversies
In 2018, the Center needed to droop a notification merging the posts of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of Chandigarh police into the DANIPS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli) cadre, after the difficulty snowballed into an analogous controversy.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
