Pb govt not short of money, salary of employees withheld as punishment: Min

Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Tuesday said the state government was not short of funds and the salary of the employees of four departments was withheld as a "punishment" for not complying with instructions of the Finance Department.

His comments came in the wake of protests by employees of technical education and industrial training, irrigation, industry and education departments against unpaid salaries for the month of October.

Badal blamed these departments for not following the directions of the Finance Department to disclosing the details of heir bank accounts and the strength of outsourced employees.

"We are not short of money (for the payment of salaries). The salary of the four departments has been withheld as punishment for not following instructions," he said.

"We had sought the details from the departments like how many banks accounts they have, how much money is lying in them, besides details about number of contractual and outsourced employees. Eight months have passed but they have not complied with the directions," Badal told PTI.

He said a meeting between the chief secretary and concerned secretaries of these departments has been scheduled for Wednesday.

"Huge sums of money was lying in these bank accounts. Why should the bank accounts be unknown to the finance department," he asked.

The finance department wanted that the bank accounts of the departments should be closed, he added.

The instructions were issued to 32 departments and only four departments have not complied with it yet.

On Monday, employees of the four departments had observed a pen-down strike in protest against unpaid salaries.