Punjab Assembly passes Bill to regularise 30,000 employees

The Punjab Assembly on Monday passed nine Bills, including a Bill to regularise the services of 30,000 contract, adhoc and daily wage employees from various government departments, in a special session convened ahead of the 2017 state elections.

The passing of the Punjab Adhoc, Contractual, Daily wage, Temporary, Work Charged and Outsourced Employees’ Welfare Bill, 2016, will put an additional financial burden of Rs 2,438 crore on the state exchequer.

With code of conduct expected to be imposed soon after the Election Commission announces the schedule for the state election, the special session of the Assembly was convened to push the nine legislations.

The decision to hold the session on Monday was taken by the state cabinet in the meeting on Friday.