SSA staff to stage protest at CM’s event on Aug 15

Tribune News Service

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Jalandhar, August 8

Non-teaching employees under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and mid-day meal scheme of Punjab’s Education Department will hold a protest during the state-level Independence Day function on August 15 near Guru Gobind Singh Stadium, if their demand for job regularisation remains unfulfilled.

They have also announced plans to protest the AAP’s campaign for the upcoming byelections.

District leaders of the Daftari Karamchari Union, including Shobit Bhagat, Gagandeep Sharma, and Kuldeep Singh, released a joint statement emphasising their grievances. They said the CM had assured them that their demand for job regularisation would be fulfilled after the Jalandhar West byelection, however, a month had passed since elections got over, but nothing had been done.

The union leaders highlighted that SSA and mid-day meal scheme employees were detained multiple times in the past during protests in the district. “We have organised several protests in the past and now decided to protest outside Guru Gobind Singh Stadium on Independence Day as CM Bhagwant Mann will unfurl the flag here,” they stated.

The leaders also recalled the CM’s announcement on September 5, 2022, about the appointment of 8,736 contractual employees in the Education Department, followed by a notification on October 7.

However, they pointed out that no official orders had been issued to date, forcing them to resort to protests.

Additionally, the employees raised concerns about a Rs 5,000 salary cut, affecting block-level employees, which they described as a gross injustice. “Despite being in the same cadre, these employees are being paid less,” they added.

They further said if the state government continued to ignore their demands, they would be forced to intensify their protests.