Fired computer teachers await dues

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 5

The salary for four months of at least 150 computers teachers, who were fired from various government schools in October, has been pending till date. This is the scenario despite the directions of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) to the UT Education Department for releasing the claims of the computers instructors. Rubinderjit Singh Brar, Director, School Education, said the matter was subjudice in the court.

On October 22, CAT directed the UT Education Department to consider the claims of “relieved” computer teachers for releasing their salary. The CAT was told that computer teachers working in government schools till September had not been paid salary since June.

The computer teachers were selected in 2008 by a UT agency, ‘Society for Promotion of IT in Chandigarh (SPIC)’. The problem started after the work was given to a private company through Gem portal instead of the SPIC this year.

The computer teachers alleged that the private contractor was demanding money from them. As per their complaints, the new contractor was adopting illegal methods to extract money by demanding Rs12,000 from teachers.

A 35-year-old male teacher said: “I had to withdraw my fixed deposit money to pay my son’s fee. Many teachers have taken a loan to carry out their daily expenses. We are left jobless after the department fired us for taking a stand against corruption. We want the Education Department to release our salaries and take strict action against the contractor.”