Edu Dept issues speaking orders to release arrears of 5,178 teachers

The Punjab School Education Secretary has issued the necessary speaking orders on Saturday to remove the difficulties faced in releasing the dues of the probation period to all the teachers appointed on 5,178 posts of the Education Department without distinguishing between petitioners and non-petitioners.

A copy of the order was handed over by Director, School Education, Gurinder Singh Sodhi to the state joint secretary of the Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF), Punjab, Jaswinder Singh Aujla. The DTF had been making efforts to release the dues of the teachers and had also held a demonstration against the department for the same.

Talking about this, DTF state president Vikram Dev Singh said the issue was raised during a rally held in Ludhiana on June 11 to protest against the delay in releasing the arrears of full salary to 5,178 teachers (non-petitioners) during the probation period and was also kept prominently in the meeting held with the Cabinet Sub-Committee and the Education Secretary (Schools).

“During the meeting, an assurance was given to resolve the issue soon as per the established rule of applying the same pay scale to a cadre. When the issue was not resolved, the organisation had sent protest letters to the Chief Minister of Punjab on July 16 through Deputy Commissioners at 20 places across the state along with a large number of 5,178 affected teachers.

In fact, the Director, School Education (Secondary), had earlier issued a speaking order in February last year, directing 5,178 teachers to release arrears as per the full pay scale during the probation period. An action report submitted in the Punjab and Haryana High Court also mentioned that the Education Department had made this decision public. However, the non-petitioner teachers in the 5,178 recruitments in the districts were not actually getting arrears as per the full pay scale,” he said.

Members of the DTF said they will approach the office of the Director, Education Department (Secondary), on August 5 as a ‘mass deputation’ to get the remaining departmental issues of the teachers resolved soon and a state action will also be taken on September 5 in parallel with the government function on the occasion of Teacher’s Day.