Taking cognisance of the proposed agitation by Revenue officers in favour of their colleagues who are facing corruption charges, the Punjab Government has applied the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) over the department and those officials who choose to go on strike.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Wednesday directed “strict disciplinary action against” any such officers. In a statement issued in Chandigarh yesterday, the Chief Minister said, “Inconvenience to the people on account of the whims and fancies of the Revenue officers will not be tolerated at any cost.”
He said that the staff in the Deputy Commissoner’s offices along with the Revenue officers are free to go on strike but any sort of inconvenience to the masses is not tolerable. “Officers are free to go on pen-down strike but then the state government will decide whether pen is to be given back to them or not.” The Chief Minister warned all striking government employees of strict punitive action in case they continued with the strike.
Bhagwant Singh Mann added, “There are a number of unemployed youth in the state who are ready to serve the state by taking the pen in their hands.”
He asked the officers to not go on the pen-down strike for their vested interests or in support of those people who are facing charges of corruption. The Chief Minister unequivocally said that the state government is firmly committed to wiping out the corruption from the state. He said that as a part of this policy, the state government has adopted a zero-tolerance policy against corruption. Bhagwant Singh Mann categorically said that neither any corrupt element nor any of his sympathisers will be spared in the drive to make the system transparent, clean and effective in the larger public interest.
