Barely into the regime change in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party government in the state and center have locked horns with new CM Bhagwant Mann threatening to protest from the streets to parliament against Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s announcement on March 28 which stated “Central services rules will apply to employees of the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
The congress and Akali Dal are on the same page as AAP on this matter and leaders across the parties call it “another big blow to the rights of Punjab”.
Akali Dal patriarch and former CM Parkash Singh Badal said the center “wants to usurp the rights of Punjab over Chandigarh”.
The Announcement
Employees from the Union Territory of Chandigarh currently work under Punjab services rule and addressing the Shah said, “the shift to central rules will benefit them in a big way as their retirement age will be raised from 58 to 60 years and women employees will get childcare leave of two years instead of the current one year.
The demand to implement central service rules for Chandigarh employees had been pending for 20-25 years.
Involvement of Politics?
Parties in Punjab are seeing Shah’s announcement as unexpected in the context of the municipal polls held in December at Chandigarh in which the BJP was stunned by AAP. Chandigarh was previously considered a BJPs stronghold but in December AAP swept away all 14 seats.
Although BJP had managed to win the mayoral post it was a contested decision after one vote was declared invalid.
BJP is seen to be trying to woo Union Territory employees with the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in mind, realizing it needs all the help it can get given the recent assembly results.
What BJP says
Senior leader and former Chandigarh MP Satya Pal Jain claimed that the Punjab government was not able to accept the recommendations of various pay commissions for its employees.
While earlier Union Territory employees were getting a salary, allowances, etc. on the Punjab pattern which will remain unchanged in the changes made by the central government and would be more beneficial.
Mp Jain also said this decision would not impact Punjab by quoting,
“When they’re our employees, how does the announcement impact Punjab?”
Further adding “we have been pursuing the case with the Prime Minister and the Home Minister for quite some time now and this decision doesn’t go against the interest of any state”.
The Punjab Reorganization Act
In 1966, when Punjab was split into Punjab and Haryana with some territory to Himachal Pradesh, both states claimed Chandigarh as their capital.
Pending a resolution, the center declared Chandigarh a Union Territory and as per the Punjab Reorganization Act of 1966, Chandigarh was to be governed by the center but laws in force in undivided Punjab were to apply to the Union Territory.
While initially, its top officer was the chief commissioner who reported to the Union Home Ministry, later the officers were drawn from the AGMUT cadre.
In 1984, the Punjab governor was made administrator of the city at a time when the region was battling terrorism and now the post of “advisor to the administrator” was passed on to AGMUT-cadre IAS officers.
As per instructions by the Home Ministry, the officers and employees of Chandigarh Union Territory (Including teachers and doctors) must be drawn from Punjab and Haryana in the ratio of 60:40 to which the Haryana government led by the BJP so far has maintained silence on Amit Shah’s announcement.
A previous but similar controversy
In 2018, the center had to suspend a notification merging the posts of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of Chandigarh police into the DANIPS (Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli) after the issue snowballed into a similar controversy.
Published By :- Tarsem Singh
Edited By :- Khushi Thakur
