Teachers in Punjab indefinitely shut down education, sports and curriculum activities
Employment News-Education, sports activities, co-curricular activities will remain closed indefinitely in all universities and colleges in Punjab. This is the demand of the teachers of the colleges that till the government does not implement the 7th Pay Commission, they will walk on the path of struggle. The government can give pension to its ministers and MLAs only after the tenure of five years, while a teacher is not entitled to pension even after serving for 35 years. Regarding this matter, in front of various colleges, the teachers of the colleges affiliated to PCCTU expressed their displeasure by expressing their anger against the government for four hours in front of their respective colleges. On behalf of the teachers, anger was expressed in DAV, Lyallpur Khalsa College and HMV.
Teachers have to say that except Punjab, the 7th Pay Commission has been implemented in the whole country. For a month, professors from 196 colleges are on hunger strike in front of the main guest house of Panjab University, Chandigarh. Their demand is that the seventh pay scale should be implemented by the Punjab government for the professors and teachers of Punjab. The Punjab government has not yet implemented the pay scale implemented by the central government since 2016.
PCCTU General Secretary Prof. SS Randhawa said that the matter has been taken up with the Speaker and even the Chief Minister in front of the Finance Minister of Punjab regarding the whole matter. Despite this, till now only hollow assurances have been received from the government. A meeting of teachers was also held with the Secretary of the Higher Education Commission, which was inconclusive. The Punjab cabinet gave instructions to the officials to find a solution but this was ignored. The professors demand that Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi himself should look into the matter and implement the seventh pay scale at the earliest. Warning the government that due to ignoring the demands, the teachers have gone on an indefinite strike under compulsion. We are left with no other option but to stop education completely.
District head Dr. Sanjeev Dhawan said that the dharna would continue till their demands were not met. Teachers are also waiting for this for many years because of not implementing it by the Punjab government. It is unfortunate that earlier in his discussion with the department the response was positive but no progress was made. Education Minister Pargat Singh and Education Secretary Krishna Kumar were met, where they agreed to accept the legitimate demands of the teachers, but nothing conclusive came out. The indifferent attitude of the government and the higher education department is the reason for so many talented people to leave Punjab.