Pending salary issue: Aided school teachers stage protest outside Tarn Taran DC office

Members of the Aided School Union Punjab on Friday sat on a dharna that continued till the time of filing this story in front of the DC office in Tarn Taran as they gathered for mass arrests.

Led by Aided School Union state president Gurmeet Singh Madnipur, who had announced the Jail Bharo movement in protest against the state government’s non-payment of salaries to teachers for the last eight months, around 700 members of the Aided School Union began their dharna in the afternoon and till 8 pm, many of them continued with their sit-in.

“We came for arrests, but the police did not let us in. Even none of the district administrative officials cared to address our issue. We will continue to hold our protest,” said Ajay Chohan, secretary, Punjab Aided School Union, and a teacher of DAV School, Hathi gate.

Cabinet Minister Hardeep Singh Mudian, who was in Tarn Taran today to campaign for the party candidate, met the teachers and promised a meeting on November 10. “But we refused. We have been called for a meeting with various cabinet ministers and officials of the Punjab Education Department many times previously. But these did not work for us,” said Madnipur.

Amid daily visits by political leaders during canvassing for their candidates contesting the Tarn Taran bypoll, the protesting teachers said they were again ignored by busy administrative officials. “We have been facing financial constraints for the last six months. For some of us, it has become difficult to run our household. We need accountability from the state government,” said a teacher requesting anonymity. There were around 300 women teachers in the protest.

The government has not released the salaries of 1,700 employees of aided schools for the last eight months and teachers allege that it is delaying grant disbursement by issuing audit notices to aided schools instead of releasing salary funds. The state government is responsible for 95 per cent of their pay.