Amit Shah Announces Chandigarh Employees to Come Under Central Service Rules; Retirement Benefits on Cards

In a major administrative move with far-reaching consequences, the Union Home Ministry on Sunday decided to bring Chandigarh administration’s employees, who are governed presently by Punjab service rules, under the central civil services rules. Among the major benefits of the move will be the enhancement of retirement age from the current 58 years to 60 years.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced the move during his one-day visit to the union territory. “Union Cabinet has already approved it and the notification regarding this will be done tomorrow. It will be implemented from the coming financial year (April 1),” he said at the inauguration of the police houses in Dhanas.

He added that due to these rules, the retirement age of the employees will be increased from 58 years to 60 years. Secondly, women employees will now have two years of child care leave from the existing one year. Also, it will have other benefits like an increase in child education allowance.

The announcements, however, evoked strong reactions from political parties. Senior Akali Leader Daljeet Cheema tweeted, “MOH’s decision to impose central govt rules on employees of Chandigarh is in violation of the spirit of Punjab Reorg act and must be reconsidered. This means denial of right of Capital to Punjab forever. After changes in BBMB, this is another big blow to the rights of Punjab.”

The Punjab Congress also reacted to the decision, saying that the party “strongly condemn the dictatorial decision of BJP to usurp upon the rights of Punjab over control of Chandigarh”. “It belongs to PB and this unilateral decision is not only a direct attack on federalism but also an attack on PB’s share of 60% control over UT,” it added.

Meanwhile, the Home Minister said that Chandigarh will become the most disciplined and modern city in the country in the coming days as he inaugurated a slew of projects, including a state-of-the-art Integrated Command and Control Centre, in the union territory. During his one-day visit, Shah inaugurated as well as laid foundation stones of projects worth Rs 632.78 crore.

The projects that were inaugurated included the Integrated Command and Control Centre, a new office building of Chandigarh Housing Board, two government schools and an urban park. He also laid foundation stones of a college hostel block and a bus depot-cum-workshop.

Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Banwarilal Purohit also attended the event. Addressing the gathering, Shah said he was visiting the city beautiful after a long time and felt very good. Chandigarh is known as the “city beautiful”.

“In the history of the modern world, Chandigarh is the most developed city in the category of planned cities, said Shah. He recalled that when he was young, children in Gujarat were given the example of Chandigarh as a planned and very good city.

“When a city grows, its requirements also change and when times change, there is a change in needs and requirements. And those which do not change with time, they cannot keep themselves relevant, he said. He also lauded the Chandigarh administration for making a system for adapting to this change.

“And that is not only for people’s facilities, it includes security and environment protection also, he said, adding that the mixed culture of the city was also taken care of. Shah said that when Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat, he got many projects related to urban development implemented.

He said Gujarat is among those states where the urban population is perhaps maximum. Shah said that after Modi became the prime minister, he brought the smart city concept to the entire country.

“How modern cities should develop…how to do planning, how to upgrade facilities and to synergise those facilities and integrate them, he said. PM Modi brought the AMRUT scheme, solar mission and green city initiative.

Shah said, “In the coming days, Chandigarh will become the country’s most disciplined and the most modern city.” Speaking about the Rs 300-crore Integrated Command and Control Centre project, Shah said it will bring a change in the delivery of citizen-centric services. It will lead to monitoring of citizen-centric facilities, he said.

This command centre will work for bringing traffic discipline or… for security, he stated. “People of Chandigarh should keep in mind that cameras will be watching your vehicles and after a violation, a challan will reach home through email, he said, adding, with this, there will be an atmosphere of a new discipline in the city.” He urged the administrator that a programme should be initiated so that school students are shown this command centre.

Under ICCC, more than 2,000 CCTV cameras have been installed in the city to keep a check on traffic violations. ICCC is also integrated with major citizen services, including water supply, electricity, sewage, solid waste management, transport, e-governance, parking and public-bike sharing, for an effective monitoring of services and data analysis.

(With PTI inputs)

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