Demanding payment of pending 18 per cent dearness allowance (DA) arrears, restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and regularisation of contractual staff, thousands of government employees and pensioners from across Punjab descended on Chandigarh on Friday, mounting one of the largest shows of strength by state employees during the tenure of the Bhagwant Mann government.Braving the Chandigarh Police water cannons, the protesters attempted to breach barricades and march towards the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. Accusing the AAP regime of betraying its poll promises, they warned of intensifying their agitation and going ahead with a statewide “Maha Bandh” on August 27 if their demands remained unresolved.A large number of women employees participated in the rally, with many leading the charge towards the barricades. In the melee that followed, some protesters sustained minor injuries, while several others lost their turbans. The rally, held at the Sector 39 grain market, was jointly organised by more than 100 employee unions, including the Punjab Mulazim and Pensioners Sanjha Front and the Sanjha Mulazim Manch.Since morning, buses and cars carrying protesters from virtually every district and government department began arriving near the venue. Thousands of vehicles lined roads and bylanes in Sector 39. With barricades erected by the police to regulate movement, employees walked for more than a kilometre in sweltering heat while raising slogans against the government.The DA issue emerged as the rally’s principal flashpoint. Union leaders, Sukhchain Khera, Satish Rana, Gurnam Virk and Hargobind Kaur, criticised indications that the government could challenge the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order directing it to release pending DA arrears within 15 days by approaching the Supreme Court. They termed such a move “anti-employee” and accused the government of using public money to deny legitimate dues to its own workforce.“We have filed a caveat in the Supreme Court to pre-empt the government appeal against the HC order,” said Sukhchain Singh Khera, convenor of the Sanjha Mulazim Manch. Union leaders also demanded implementation of Punjab pay scales by withdrawing the decision to grant Central Government pay scales, and reduction of the probation period for newly recruited employees. Speakers said the scale of the mobilisation reflected growing disenchantment among government employees with AAP.Associations refuse to withdraw bandh callThe scale of the protest has the ruling AAP worried as 7.50 lakh employees and pensioners, along with their families, constitute a major vote bank. The government said a meeting of union representatives with CM Bhagwant Singh Mann has been scheduled for August 27 to resolve the issues through discussions.Sources said an officer in the Chief Minister’s Office, Navraj Singh Brar, met the union representatives and conveyed the government’s offer of a meeting with the CM. However, the unions refused to withdraw the bandh call, maintaining that any decision would depend on the outcome of the meeting.