Congress today faced tough questions from both government and non-government employees of Chandigarh over the issue of regularisation.
Chandigarh Confederation of Workers & Employees (CCWE) had organised a conference of leaders of main political parties contesting from Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat which was attended by Kirron Kher (BJP) and Gul Panang (AAP).
In the absence of Congress candidate and four-time MP Pawan Kumar Bansal, city-based Congress leader H S Lucky attended the conference.
As soon as Lucky started announcing Congress' achievements including constitution of 7th Pay Commission, Lucky was interrupted by CCWE members for not taking up the issue of contractual employees who have not been regularised despite working in different governmental and non-governmental departments for past several years.
When CCWE president Bhupinder Singh Gill asked Lucky to talk about issues concerning employees, he said some of the contractual employees had been regularized and added that the party was going to take up the issue of promotion of Union Territory employees.
Lucky said Bansal could not come as he was already engaged with some other programme in the city.
CCWE members said more than 10,000 contractual workers have been working in several governmental and non-governmental establishments in the city for the past several years and they have not been regularised.
BJP candidate Kher said contractual employees must be regularized who have been denied their rights despite working for several years. She also raised the issue of contractual teachers in colleges who are not regularized.
AAP's Panag attributed the "miserable" situation of contractual employees to lack of political will while demanding "equal pay" for contractual workers.
"If a temporary worker has been working for the last 15-20 years in a particular department, then how can he be considered temporary? Why he should be denied equal pay for equal work?" asked Panang while adding that it is a violation of fundamental right.
