Lowering of retirement age: College teachers up in arms against govt in Amritsar

Amritsar, February 15

The Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union (PCCTU) on Wednesday launched an agitation against the Punjab Government at DAV College for reducing the retirement age of teachers in colleges. All the colleges remained closed for the day. The teachers will hand over a memorandum to the DC, Harpreet Sudan, tomorrow in this regard.

Speaking on the occasion, Munish Gupta, secretary of local unit of the PCCTU, said on September 5 last year, the Punjab Government had decided to implement the UGC 7th Pay Commission scales for the university and college teachers. A cabinet meeting was held in this regard on September 9, 2022, following which a notification was issued on September 28, 2022.“In the notification, which was issued in a hurried manner, the Punjab Government tampered with the service rules by reducing the retirement age of teachers of government-aided private colleges from 60 to 58 years. The Punjab government has not only violated the 44-year-old Grant-in-Aid Act, 1979, but also acted against the Punjab Privately Managed Affiliated and Punjab Government Aided Colleges, Pensionary Benefits Scheme, 1996 (Repeal) Act, 2012, under which a written statement was filed by special secretary of Department of Higher Education. It was mentioned in the statement that the retirement age of teachers of aided colleges was 60 years instead of 58 years under the signatures of the then minister of higher education, Sikander Singh Maluka, on December 18, 2012.”

Unit president Dr Gurdas Singh Sekhon said according to the service rules, clause 11 (C) and clause 11 (E), the retirement age of teachers was to be on the lines of government employees. “Now here is the main issue because the retirement age of Punjab government employees is 58 years and as per clause 13 (2) of this notification released by state government, teachers’ retirement age automatically becomes 58 and we have been requesting the government to rectify it for the past several months but to no avail,” he said.

He said all other organisations of the teachers and other stakeholders have now officially launched agitation against this retirement age issue. “We again request the ministers of Punjab to get the anomalies rectified in the notification of the UGC 7th Pay Commission of the Punjab Government,” said Sekhon.