Treasuries disburse salaries to govt employees

Patiala Deputy Commissioner Viswajit Khanna told ENS that the camp office of the district treasury officer was set up in the old Police Lines Senior Secondary School with adequate police deployment to ward off possible trouble by the agitating ministerial staff.

The drawing and disbursing officers of different departments were called there and after verification of the pay bills by them, salary cheques were issued to the DDOs. Payment for these cheques was made at the State Bank of Patiala treasury branch on The Mall, which remained open up to 7 p.m yesterday and again functioned for the day today.

Khanna said that total payments worth Rs 10 crore were made yesterday, while the transactions were still in progress today. He clarified that in view of the government instructions not to pay the striking employees for the strike period, no salary cheques were issued in respect of the striking staff. An undertaking of employees not being on strike was obtained from the DDO of the concerned department, he said.

Sangrur Deputy Commissioner Anirudh Tiwari said that the main branch of State Bank of Patiala, which handled government transactions, remained open today to facilitate payment of salaries to the government employees.

Tiwari said that despite Dussehra holiday, sub treasuries at Dhuri, Lehra, Sunam and Malerkotla remained open and functioned as usual today. Drawing and disbursing officers of 18 departments collected payments of salaries of their staff today while six DDOs collected the payment yesterday. Tiwari said that the administration had made proper security arrangements to ensure that there was no disruption of work.

He said that the treasury at Sangrur had cleared and paid bills worth Rs 1 crore despite a holiday.

Meanwhile, the ministerial staff here observed a different Dussehra today by burning the effigy of Punjab government instead of Ravana’s. Heavy police had been deployed at the office of the Deputy Commissioner due to the tension. Addressing the rally, State Employees Action Committee convenor Sukhdev Singh Bari, secretary Democratic Teachers Front Tarsem Chand, and senior leader PSEB Ministerial Services union Pawan Kumar warned the state government to concede the demands of the agitating employees or to be prepared for its repercussions.

Jalandhar: The government treasury functioned here today in spite of Dussehra holiday and gherao by ministerial staff for the fourth consecutive day.

Altogether 16 bills, mostly of government staff salary, were cleared today amid police protection. The treasury has so far cleared 111 bills during the four-day gherao by the ministerial staff, who have been on a pen-down strike since September 15 to press their demand for setting up of an anomalies committee to remove discrepancies in their pay-scales.

Batala: District administration made special arrangements for disbursing the salaries to those employees who had not supported the strike being observed by the ministerial staff in Punjab. Deputy Commissioner S K Sandhu said here today that district treasury office and treasury offices at Batala, Dera Baba Nanak, Pathankot and Jugial were opened yesterday and State Bank of India and State Bank of Patiala was open till 8 p.m yesterday. Sandhu said that an amount of Rs 12 crore was disbursed among the employees who were not on strike. He said that treasury offices would remain open on October 1 and 2 in view of the strike.