Teachers burn minister’s effigy over demands

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 18

Members of the Bathinda unit of the Democratic Teachers Front today staged a protest in favour of their demands.

They raised slogans against the state government and the Education Department. They also burnt an effigy of the Education Minister at Fauji Chowk.

Addressing the protesters, leaders of the front said the demands of students, permanent and contractual staff of government schools had been ignored all these years by consecutive governments.

The protesting teachers demanded revival of pension benefits to those recruited after 2004, regularisation of jobs of all employees who have been working under the Education Department after being recruited under various Central and state government schemes, release of salaries as per the pay grades, extension of proper allowances and benefits and allocation of stations to the newly promoted teachers among other things.

Resham Singh, a leader of the union said, in the recent past, a lot of political interference into the work of promotions and transfers was witnessed, which was not an acceptable.

“Promotions and transfers should be done on merit and need basis and not through political interference. This does not set a good example and should not be entertained by the Education Department,” he said.

The protesters accused the state government of exploiting them by not sticking to its promise of regularising their jobs after three years of continuous service and also by making them work on meagre salaries.

“During our recruitment procedure, all rules and regulations were followed like in the case of permanent recruitment. Still, the government changes the norms of regularisation after every a few years. First, we were promised that after three years of continuous service, our jobs will be regularised. Then we were asked to clear eligibility examinations and now, the government is ignoring us,” said the union members.