Overview
- A Cabinet sub‑committee has recommended raising dearness allowance from 42% to 60% for about 85,000 employees recruited after July 17, 2020, and has forwarded the recommendation to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for final approval.
- Punjab has appealed to the Supreme Court after the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered the state to clear roughly Rs 14,191 crore in pending DA and dearness relief arrears within a fortnight, which ministers say is fiscally impractical.
- Ministers offered an alternative of matching overall take‑home pay with central government staff and argued that Punjab’s higher basic pay plus staged DA increases make direct comparisons misleading.
- The unions’ umbrella body Sanjha Mulazam Manch says it will not return to talks until disciplinary notices from the August 27 strike are withdrawn and has scheduled mass casual leave on September 8 plus further protests if demands are unmet.
- Analysts and union leaders warn the targeted 60% fix could split the workforce because about 3.15 lakh pre‑2020 employees and some 3.5 lakh pensioners would remain outside the relief, with political and fiscal consequences for upcoming negotiations and elections.