Educators to stage protest over pending salaries today

Thousands of teachers from various Punjab Government-aided schools, many of whom have not received salaries for the past nine-eighteen months, are set to launch a protest in Tarn Taran on October 18, in protest of what they called the government’s “anti-teacher policies”.

The demonstration, to be held during the by-election period, will be led by Aided Schools Teachers’ Union state president Gurmeet Singh Madanipur and state secretary Sharanjit Singh Kadimajra.

Announcing the protest, union district president Monika Sharma said ‘C&V’ category teachers had been awaiting their pay for 18 months, while other staff had not been paid for the last

nine months.

“Despite repeated meetings with officials and ministers of the Education and Finance departments, no grant has been released to disburse salaries,” she added.

She alleged that the department had withheld grants under the pretext of auditing school management committees. “The Education Department neither has sufficient audit staff nor adequate academic officers to conduct audits. Teachers are suffering due to this administrative vacuum,” Sharma added.

The union also claimed that this was the first time since 1967 that the Punjab Government had stopped salary grants, citing audit formalities. Accusing the government of conspiring to close down aided schools, Sharma said staff members were being forced to celebrate festivals like Dasehra and Diwali without pay.

“The so-called ‘education revolution’ government cannot even ensure teachers receive their salaries. It is inhumane and amounts to humiliation of the educated class,” she said, urging the Punjab Human Rights Commission to fix responsibility for the salary delay.

District secretary Balwinder Kaur said teachers educating nearly 1.76 lakh students in aided schools had been pushed into financial distress.

“It is shameful that teachers — who are shaping the future of our children — are being forced to go hungry on Diwali. The government alone is responsible,” she asserted.

Union leaders declared that, on October 18, during the Tarn Taran by-election, they would “expose the false promises of the government before the people”.