Punjabi varsity teachers end stir

Tribune News Service

Patiala, October 16

Teachers associated with the Punjabi University Contractual Teachers’ Association (PUCTA), who have been protesting on the campus for the past 15 days, on Tuesday ended their stir after the university authorities accepted their demand for full pay scale. 

The decision came after a committee formed by Vice-Chancellor BS Ghuman under the chairmanship of GS Batra, dean, research, decided to raise their salaries and provide them daily allowance along with basic pay. The university will give a written confirmation regarding the same in the next Syndicate meeting.

The university has also decided to deliberate upon charging normal fees from teachers for special PhD work. Earlier, the candidates were required to pay Rs 50,000 as fees. These teachers will also get paid holidays.

The university was paying Rs 21,600 to contractual teachers and Rs 15,000 to instructors in constituent colleges, neighbourhood campuses, regional centres and on campus as basic pay till now. Later, in a Syndicate meeting on October 9, the university increased the salaries of contractual teachers to Rs 30,000.

Lovedeep Sharma, president, PUCTA, said, “The university will give us a written confirmation regarding raise in our salaries in the next Syndicate meeting. If the university does not keep its words, we will resume our protest.”