Punjab Roadways contractual staff to get 30% hike in salaries

Protesting contractual employees of the Punjab Roadways, PRTC and PUNBUS held a meeting with the Punjab Government on Tuesday, where the latter agreed to increase their salaries by 30 per cent. An order in this regard will come into force from September 15. On the regularisation of services of contractual employees, the government has sought a week's time. Sandeep Sandhu, political adviser to Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, gave them an assurance that the decision would be taken after consulting the Chief Minister. The government has also announced to add 842 new buses to its fleet. Also read | Punjab to set up 24,689 polling booths for Assembly elections 2022 After the meeting with the Punjab Government, the protesting employees will now be holding their meeting to chalk out the future course of action. The contractual employees of PRTC, Punjab Roadways and PUNBUS had been on an indefinite agitation since September 6. The protesters have been demanding the regularisation of their services, besides a new fleet of buses. Also Read | Joe Biden declares state of emergency in Louisiana over storm Nicholas Earlier, the protesting employees had alleged that before coming to power, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh used to make tall claims of eliminating the transport mafia from Punjab, but now he was making efforts to eliminate government-run buses. They alleged that the state government had failed to add new buses to its fleet and regularise their services. -PTC News with inputs from Aman Bhardwaj