Chandigarh, Aug 5 (IANS) Emphasising that Punjab already paid some of the highest government pay scales in the country, state Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema has said that the state government has inherited a Rs 14,191 crore liability of employees' pay commission arrears.
He said on Tuesday that the state government has already cleared more than Rs 6,000 crore under a High Court-approved liquidation plan and remained committed to paying all constitutionally and legally valid dues while examining the court's Monday's judgment and the available legal remedies.
Cheema told the media here that the employee pay commission report was originally formulated in 2016 during the tenure of the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government but remained unimplemented for years.
"The report was implemented only in July 2021. As a result, dearness allowance (DA) arrears from January 1, 2016, to July 2021 were frozen, creating a liability of Rs 14,191 crore," he said.
The state Finance Minister said that although the process of implementing the pay commission recommendations had been initiated under the previous government, the then Congress government remained in power without releasing even a single rupee towards clearing these arrears, leaving the entire financial burden for the present Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led state government.
Explaining the steps taken by the current AAP government, Minister Cheema said after various employees approached the High Court the state government prepared a structured liquidation plan, which was accepted by the court.
"Out of the total liability of Rs 14,191 crore, the AAP government has already paid over Rs 6,000 crore to employees. The High Court accepted the liquidation plan, and its implementation is proceeding smoothly," he added.
Responding to the court judgment regarding DA disbursements, the Minister said certain constitutional benchmarks and judicial precedents appeared to have been overlooked in the interpretation of the single Bench.
Referring to the 2005 Constitution Bench judgment in the state of Maharashtra case, Minister Cheema said Punjab currently "offers some of the highest pay scales in the country, exceeding Central government pay structures in several categories".
Presenting comparisons between the state government and Central government pay scales for various posts, Cheema added, "The state government's legal argument was that a state could not simultaneously sustain both the highest basic pay scales and the highest Central DA rates when the state's pay structures were already significantly higher."
He said the previous Congress government had itself decided that newly recruited employees would be inducted under the Central Pay Commission guidelines.
