Govt. Employees Protest in CM’s Village; Diplomat Asked to Prove Citizenship

August

2026

Thousands of government employees staged a massive protest in Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's native village Satauj, Sangrur district to demand full implementation and formal rollout of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) instead of the National Pension System (NPS). The protestors, organized under the Old Pension Restoration Joint Forum, began marching toward the Chief Minister's residence in the village, where they were met with water cannons. The forum leaders accused the Panjab government of not fulfilling the promises made before the elections. They said that despite the notification regarding the OPS being issued on 18 Nov 2022, no work has been done to implement it. The protest was later called off after a meeting was arranged with the CM to be held on 27 Aug. Additionally, retired and serving personnel of the Punjab Home Guard blocked a highway in Ludhiana on 20 Aug to press the government to accept their long-pending demands—implementation of the Pay Commission for serving personnel, and pension benefits after retirement. Meanwhile, a contempt petition has been filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court (PHHC) by retired and working employees of Panjab, after the government failed to release the Dearness Allowance (DA) dues to employees and pensioners within the stipulated 15-day period, which ended on 17 Aug. The PHHC had directed the Panjab government to release all pending DA installments on 3 Aug. Responding, the Panjab government sought time to file a compliance report in respect of the 3 Aug order. The matter was deferred to 27 Sep. Concurrently, former diplomat and grandson of Panjabi writer Nanak Singh, Navdeep Suri, raised concerns over the process of establishing citizenship during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Panjab. Writing about his ordeal on X, he said that he was issued a notice by the Election Commission and asked to produce documents after discrepancies were flagged in his details from the 2003 electoral roll: ‘I happen to have documents other than Voter ID and Aadhaar (Identity) Card. But can’t help asking: If I have trouble establishing my citizenship after representing India in three countries, what’s the fate of the common citizen?’ After Suri, another former diplomat, 75-year-old Ramesh Chander, has been asked to furnish additional documents to establish his eligibility as a voter by the Jalandhar SIR (earlier coverage).