7th Pay Commission: Teachers to take out 'maha rally' today

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 20

The college and university teachers strikes being carried out under the banner of PFUCTO and PCCTU today received support from student organisations as the academic session gets further delayed, becoming a cause of concern for students.

The dharna being staged at all major city colleges today saw students coming to support teachers and urging government to end the tussle keeping in mind academic interests. The teachers will hold maha rally tomorrow to intensify their stir.

In today’s rally at DAV College, students called for implementation of the wages. “The government must not deny teachers of their rights, also, keep in mind that the strike is causing sever loss of academics and precious time to students.

Internal exams have already been postponed and even semester exams now will get delayed further extending to January 2022. This is not good for students,” said Gurbir Singh, a student of BSc Computer

Science.

Several colleges, including BBKDAV College, have postponed their internal examinations due to teachers strike. The semester examinations that usually used to begin by December 24-25 stand delayed as the GNDU is yet to announce the date sheet and is waiting for any decision to be reached regarding teachers’ demands. The winter break would also be affected due to this delay. “Most of the colleges’ winter break is announced near 10-15 January. With the delay now, examinations might be conducted in January, which means no break or limited holidays, which is again an issue of concern for students, who stay as PGs as they will have to now spend extra on living expenses,” said Shruti Khanduja, a student of BSc IT.

Meanwhile, the failure of government to come up with a decision on the matter, the district unit of PFUCTO and PCCTU today announced a maha rally on Tuesday (December 21). District President, PFUCTO, Dr Gurdas Singh Sekhon said despite the promise made by the Minister of Higher Education to implement the Seventh Pay Scale of the UGC and not to add grade of teachers, no concrete development has taken place in this regard so far. “A grand rally will be held from the university to the Putlighar Chowk tomorrow. We will protest on the streets to convey our message to government. We make our point clear to masses,” he said.