Aided school teachers threaten ‘mass arrests’ over salaries

As the state observed Gurpurb of Guru Nanak Dev, members of the Aided School Union on Wednesday convened a meeting to address the persistent issue of non-payment of salaries for the last eight months.

Gurmeet Singh Madnipur, state president of the Aided School Union Punjab, chaired the meeting held in Amritsar in connection with the November 7 protest and the Jail Bharo movement. The meeting was held at DAV School, Hathi Gate.

Madnipur said the government has not released the salaries of 1,700 employees of aided schools for the last eight months. “The state government is delaying the release of grants by issuing some new letter on audit of school funds without any reason. The Punjab Government is conspiring to close these legacy schools on the pretext of checking the accounts of the managements of aided schools. We have been running from one official to official to get our grievances addressed, but till date we have been ignored,” he said.

The union has now demanded the government to withdraw its unnecessary letters and release salaries till December. “If the pending salaries of aided school employees are not released by November 6, then on November 7, all aided school employees will court arrest at the DC office, Tarn Taran, and the correspondents of all managing committees will also resign from their posts,” said Madnipur.