Rejecting the three per cent DA hike announced by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as a “Diwali gift”, nearly four lakh Punjab Government employees and 3.5 lakh pensioners today announced a month-long agitation, beginning November 13. The series of protests will culminate in a proposed human chain from Shambhu to Amritsar on December 13.The agitation will begin with a pucca dharna at Sangrur from November 13 to 19, with the unions shifting their protest venue from Chandigarh. From December 1 to 5, employees and pensioners will stage protests outside the residences of all 91 AAP MLAs in their respective constituencies and burn effigies of the ruling party.On December 6, the ashes of the effigies will be immersed in the Budha Nullah, said Sukhchain Khera and Gurnam Singh Virk, leaders of the Joint Coordination Committee of Employee and Pensioner Unions. On December 13, the unions plan to form a human chain from Shambhu to Amritsar to demonstrate solidarity among government employees and highlight their demands. The announcement comes a day after Mann announced a three per cent hike in DA, taking the total DA to 53 per cent. The increase will entail an additional expenditure of Rs 90 crore per month, according to the government. Two months ago, the government had announced an eight per cent DA hike. Together, the two instalments will result in an annual additional outgo of Rs 3,988 crore, CM Mann had announced yesterday. However, the employee and pensioner unions said the announcement did not address their principal demands and that they would continue their agitation until all outstanding issues were resolved. Their demands include implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), release of the remaining 10 per cent DA, payment of pending DA arrears, implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, restoration of old pay scales and allowances, and withdrawal of policies affecting employees’ service conditions. In a presentation before the media, the Joint Coordination Committee leaders sought to rebut what they described as misleading claims by the government on employee-related issues. Each issue raised by them was preceded by video clips of AAP leaders, either from before the party came to power or from its tenure in government.The union leaders disputed the government’s claim that Punjab employees were drawing the highest salaries in the country. They also challenged the state government’s repeated contention that it was burdened by pending DA instalments left behind by previous governments.“Only seven per cent DA was pending when the Congress lost the election. The Akali-BJP government had not left any pending DA,” Khera said, disputing the government’s account of the outstanding dues.The leaders further alleged that the government was projecting the payment of Sixth Pay Commission arrears as clearance of DA dues. They claimed that 10 per cent DA was still pending and demanded its immediate release.The unions also accused the government of going back on its commitment to implement the Old Pension Scheme. They played video clips of Mann announcing the implementation of OPS in November 2022, along with earlier statements by AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal and Finance Minister Harpal Cheema supporting the scheme before the party formed the government in Punjab.The union leaders said employees and pensioners would not be satisfied with piecemeal announcements and would continue their agitation until the government fulfilled its commitments and addressed all their demands.