“They have detained our union leader Ranvir Nadampur of Bhawanigarh (Sangrur district). He was taken to Kalajhad police station on Saturday night and has not been released till now. While Inderjit Singh of Gurdaspur is under house arrest, the police visited the houses of several other leaders as well. But we are undeterred and will do our protest rally,” said Sukhwinder Singh from Unemployed Sanjha Morcha Punjab.

Raids were also conducted in the houses of union leaders of Punjab Pay Scale Bahali Sanjha front. Harjinder Singh, one of their convenors, said, “Our state convenor Shashpal Ratolan has been detained in a police station in Sangrur. They also visited the houses of several other leaders but they couldn’t find them in the houses. However, we will organise the protest rally for sure. The government is trying to create fear but we will remain undeterred.”

Unemployed Sanjha Morcha is a joint forum of five unions of unemployed persons seeking jobs in the government sector. “These are unemployed Bachelor in Education (BEd), teacher eligibility test (TET) pass union, overage unemployed union, maths, science BEd, TET pass unemployed union, art and craft TET pass unemployed union and unemployed multipurpose health worker union,” said Sukhwinder Singh, office-bearer of Unemployed Sanjha Morcha.

“All the union members had cleared the required government tests years ago but the previous governments were not giving them jobs and the AAP had promised to give them jobs. But they didn’t fulfil their promise, and even when we protested, the police used force against us. So, we have planned a protest in the constituency going for polls to expose the ruling government,” added Sukhwinder.

“We will do a protest rally at Ravidas Chowk in Jalandhar on Sunday afternoon and, after that, will march towards AAP’s party office to protest outside that office as well.”

Raman Kumar Malaut, president of Overage Unemployed Union, said, “AAP had promised it in their poll manifesto to give us jobs. Bhagwant Mann even asked why there is an age limit for seeking government jobs when there is no age limit for contesting polls by politicians. As of now, a person can apply for a government job up to the age of 35. However, Mann never discussed this topic after coming to power. Hence, we have no choice but to protest.”

Sukhwinder said, “During the Lok Sabha polls, we gave memorandums to the AAP candidates. But as the issue is connected to the state, we will be protesting on Sunday against the AAP government.”

Pay scale revival

The Punjab Pay Scale Bahali Sanjha Front will also protest in Jalandhar West on Sunday. These are the employees recruited after 2020 for whom the Centre pay scale has been made applicable instead of the Punjab pay scale.

“The Centre pay scale is less than Punjab’s pay scale, so the salaries of new employees are less than those of those getting Punjab pay scale. Hence, our demand is no vote if there is no Punjab pay scale. We have made such posters as well,” said Yudhjit Singh, convenor of Punjab Pay Scale Bahali Sanjha Morcha.

He said, “Then finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal imposed a Centre pay scale on the new recruitments from 2020 onwards, and afterwards, over 60,000 employees were recruited using the same pay scale. In fact, the central pay scale is also not being given fully, which is why the pay difference is huge. On Sunday, we will organise a rally in a public park in Jalandhar West to lodge our protest. Already, we have distributed posters to the employees in the constituency as well, which say, vote if there is no revival of Punjab pay scale.”

The bypoll was necessitated following Sheetal Angural’s resignation as an AAP legislator. Angural is the BJP candidate, while Mohinder Bhagat is the AAP candidate.