Non-aided teachers, non-teaching employees hold protest

AMRITSAR: On a call given by the Joint Action Committee of principals, teachers and non-teaching staff of non-government aided and affiliated colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh, a massive rally was organised at the Company Garden, Amritsar, today to protest against the "anti-education" and "anti-employee" policies of the government.

Non-aided teachers and non-teaching employees stage a protest against the government at the Lawrence road chowk in Amritsar on Friday. PHOTO: RK SONI

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 19

On a call given by the Joint Action Committee of principals, teachers and non-teaching staff of non-government aided and affiliated colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh, a massive rally was organised at the Company Garden, Amritsar, today to protest against the "anti-education" and "anti-employee" policies of the government.

Members of the said stakeholders of the colleges were agitated over the "undue" and "unwarranted" delay in the release of grants meant for the payment of salaries.

The principals, teachers and non-teaching employees of the colleges of Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar and representatives from other districts of Punjab participated in the rally. Thereafter, a protest march was organised from the Company Bagh to Novelty Chowk.

The state general secretary of the PCCTU, Prof HS Walia, said there had been a 15-month delay in the disbursement of grants meant for the payment of salaries to the employees.

He said if there was a financial crunch, it meant that the government had failed miserably to generate resources even for meeting the basic requirements of the state.

“Under such a scenario, 75 per cent of the colleges were on the verge of closure."

The members of the Principal Federation, Dr Surinder Bangar, Dr Rajesh Kumar, Dr Narinder Kaur, Dr Harbinder and Dr PK Sharma, appealed to the government to release the pending grants in the larger interest of higher education in the state.

The finance secretary of the PCCTU, Prof VK Sareen, the state executive member, Prof JA Arora, the district president, Prof Malkiat Singh, and the district secretary, Prof Vikas Bhardwaj, opined that the entire higher education system was going haywire due to the "directionless" policies of the government.

They demanded implementation of the pension and the gratuity scheme, security of service for employees, relaxation in refresher courses as per the UGC guidelines and streamlining of Academic Performance Indicator (API) Score System for promotions.

Regarding the next course of action, Prof HS Walia said a press conference would be held on December 22 at Chandigarh, where the Joint Action Committee would declare the next course of action to intensify the struggle.

Meanwhile, according to the reports received today, the quarterly grant for the third quarter of financial year 2013-14 has been released, but the grant for four quarters was still pending.