Chandigarh, September 3
The Punjab Government today claimed that there was no move to hold back employees’ salaries which were being released. A majority of government employees, however, claimed that they had still not received their salaries for August.

The state government has claimed that “no instructions had been issued to any treasury officer of the state for withholding salaries of employees, and all salaries were being released as and when the bills were submitted by various departments.”

Barring a small section, a majority of employees had not received their salaries till the time the offices closed down at 5 pm.

Paramdeep Singh Bhabat, president of the Punjab Civil Secretariat Staff Association, told The Tribune that salaries of employees had not been transferred in their accounts. “Throughout the day, desperate employees were calling us and when we made inquiry from the state treasury office, we were assured that the salaries would be transferred by tonight,” he said.

The state government has maintained that they have released salaries to the tune of Rs 500 crore so far. The monthly salary bill of Punjab is to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore, and along with the pension, the state has to shell out Rs 1,681 crore each month. Official sources said while the state government had released Rs 500 crore for pensioners on August 30, the salaries of the three lakh employees were kept on hold.

While the travelling allowance bills of the ministers had been cleared, the bills of Punjab Government employees have been kept pending.

Notwithstanding the claims made by the state government about the state’s economy being robust, the figures available with The Tribune present a gloomy picture. The state’s revenue receipts (April-June) were Rs 7,446.86 crore, while the revenue expenditure during this period was Rs 8,021.27 crore. This shows the state’s revenue deficit during the first quarter was Rs 574. 41 crore.