Bhagwant Mann’s govt fails to pay August salaries to employees? Punjab Finance Minister says this

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann came under fire after a report claimed that the AAP-led Punjab government had not cleared salaries for its employees for August, despite the fact that September was only six days old. According to the report, the Bhagwant Mann-led administration was unable to pay its employees due to a lack of funds and thus did not pay their salaries for August.

However, Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema clarified on Wednesday that the government employees will receive their salaries by today evening. Her response came after the report on late salaries of government employees created a stir.

Cheema also claimed that the state faced no shortage of money and there was a continuous inflow of money to the treasury.

“Everyone will receive salaries in their accounts by today evening. Only the process got delayed, nothing else… There is no shortage of money in Punjab. There is a continuous inflow of money in Punjab`s treasury,” state Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema told ANI.

He further disclosed that the salary credit was “only delayed” as the government had recently made contractual employees permanent. “Punjab government made 9,000 contractual employees permanent, due to which the process of paying salaries to state govt employees got delayed by 3-4 days. Everyone`s salaries have been released today,” he said.

Nearly 18,000 new recruitments have been done by the Punjab government, Cheema added.

The remarks came when Congress MLA and senior leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira slammed CM Bhagwant Mann-led government while raising the issue of delayed salaries being provided to government employees.