Amritsar, Gurdaspur PCCTU members extend support to protesting Batala college teachers

Amritsar, November 20

Today, a meeting of the district councils of Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union (PCCTU) for Gurdaspur and Amritsar was convened here under Gurdas Singh Sekhon, general secretary of the PCCTU. The primary focus of the meeting was to address the ongoing protest by teachers at Baring Union Christian College (BUCC), Batala, now in its 46th day.

Gurdas Singh Sekhon condemned the managing committee of the Baring Union Christian College, Batala, for failing to fulfil their commitment to implement the 7th UGC pay scale. The PCCTU general secretary expressed deep concern over the unfulfilled promises made by the college management.

Lalit Kumar, district president of PCCTU Gurdaspur and secretary, local unit, BUCC, said that the teaching staff had initially protested against the issuance of irrational and illegal premature forced retirement letters to four members of the teaching staff approaching the age of 58 years instead of the mandated 60 years by the Baring management.

“Subsequently, the Punjab government reinstated the grant for college teachers working in privately managed colleges under the 95 per cent grant-in-aid scheme of the state. At that time, the college management and officiating principal committed to compensating the staff by implementing the 7th Pay Commission scales, as notified by the Punjab government in April 2023. Despite sending the cases of teaching staff to the DPI (Colleges), Punjab,0 for pay fixation as per the revised scale with an undertaking in August, the Baring management failed to fulfil its promise,” he said.

The PCCTU extended full support to the ongoing agitation, now in its 46th day. The PCCTU also issued an appeal to the management of BUCC to fulfil the promises made earlier.