Mass leaves of teachers to invite disciplinary action: DPI

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, October 22

In a circular issued to all the District Education Officers (DEOs), school heads and all Block Primary Education Officers (BPEOs) today by the Director Public Instructions (DPI), Secondary Education, Punjab, the school heads are advised to ensure that unless there is a genuine reason for the teachers belonging to the SSA/RMSA category to be on casual leave, no leave should be sanctioned to these employees.

The department through various school heads has been informed that certain teachers belonging to SSA/RMSA society have taken en masse (mass) leave for October 22 and 23, therefore, the school heads and DEOs have been asked to verify the real grounds for the leave before sanctioning it.

The circular also reads, keeping in view the loss that the students have to bear, the department cannot sanction unnecessary leaves. Disciplinary action would be initiated by the respective school heads under intimation to the head office in case any employee remains absent without prior-permission of the competent authority.

Meanwhile, as per sources, the reason behind teachers requesting leave is that they want to participate in protest against Punjab Government over cut in their salaries in lieu of regularisation on October 23 at Patiala.

As the government has given the last date till October 23 to accept the proposal for regularisation, meeting with Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar has been fixed for October 24, thus the teachers adamant on their demands have decided to gather and protest in Patiala, while hundreds of teachers have already reached there, said teachers under the SSA/RMSA.

The teachers, however have said, even if the department did not sanction their leave, they would still fight for their rights until their demands were fulfilled. They said they would later devote extra time to complete the syllabus.