Hours before his scheduled meeting with protesting employees’ unions on Thursday, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann refused to meet them, even as a statewide strike brought work across government departments to a grinding halt, causing widespread inconvenience to people

The proposed ‘maha bandh’ comes after the Punjab and Haryana high court, acting on a set of petitions, directed the Punjab government on August 3 to clear the pending DA dues of…

More than 4 lakh pensioners are also expected to join the agitation and stage sit-ins at government offices at the district, tehsil and block levels.