Teachers, nurses & farmers on the warpath

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 27

Continuing education bandh across the region on Monday, around 200 teachers of various colleges of Jalandhar district assembled outside HMV College under the banner of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union, to register their protest against anti-education policies of the state government.

The growing support for the cause of teachers can be gauged from the fact that leaders of the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, including Kulwant Singh Sandhu, participated in the dharna to show solidarity with the protesting teachers and extend support for implementation of the 7th UGC Pay Commission and scrapping the idea of de-linking the scales from the UGC.

Speaking to mediapersons, Dr SS Bains, district general secretary, Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union, said Punjab was the only state in India, which has yet not implemented the UGC pay scales for college and university teachers. He also informed that the process of de-linking the pay-scales of teachers from the UGC would hit higher education very badly by draining out the financial assistance from the Centre for colleges and universities of Punjab, which would finally result in a costly education for students.

Dr Sanjeev Dhawan, district chief, PCCTU, said the complete education candh would continue in the state and would be intensified further by spreading awareness among masses by organising protests in almost all the constituencies of the state, especially those represented by the Cabinet ministers.

He said the teachers would assemble at Punjab Congress Bhawan in Chandigarh on December 28 and request PPCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu to accompany them to New Delhi and remind Rahul Gandhi of the promise he made in 2018 regarding the implementation of the 7th UGC pay scales.

“If the Punjab Government does not fulfill the demands of the teachers, we will hold a massive protest outside the All India Congress Committee’s office in New Delhi on December 31,” he said.

Jalandhar, December 27

Nurses under the banner of the Joint Action Nurses Committee, Punjab and Chandigarh, held a rally in the CM Charanjit Singh Channi’s constituency in Kharar and protested against the government. While there are as many as 200 members of the Nurses Committee, Punjab, and the UT in Jalandhar, over 100 nursing association members participated in the dharna in Kharar. They also blocked the Ropar-Chandigarh highway.

Assured of a panel meeting by the CM, nurses continued their strike on the highway and will be staying at Kharar till they have a panel meeting tomorrow. In Jalandhar, the dharna has been going on since December 6 everyday outside the Civil Hospital. However, nurses laid siege to the CM’s constituency and held a dharna here today.

Their prime demands include fixing of the typographical error of the 5th Pay Commission and pay commission to be implemented from 2006. They said payment of salaries of Rs 29,200 to newly recruited nurses on a new joining, is akin to duping them. Nurses’ pay grade is Rs 4,600 everywhere but the state government has relegated nurses pay grade to Rs 2,800. Similarly, new salaries on joining as per central guidelines amounted to Rs 44,900 but nurses’ salary in the state is Rs 29,200.

Nurses who should fall in group B have been placed in group D salary slot by the government. The pay commission has also sought higher pay grades for nurses from the state government. They have also not fulfilled nurses’ demand to be paid allowances on the pattern of the Central government’s pattern. — TNS

Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, December 27

The Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee blocked the railway tracks for eighth day on Monday.

In protest against the state government’s failure to address their demands, farmers today burnt effigies of Union Agricultural Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, MP Gurpreet Aujla and and also of Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi against their recent statements.

Farmers also indulged in sloganeering against the government. State organisational secretary Sukhwinder Singh Sabhra said like previous governments, the present state government had also failed to manage the system and in biting winter chill, farmers had to sit in the open to raise their voices.

They said if the government doesn’t implement promises made in its election manifesto and the demands agreed upon during the struggle then their agitation will be intensified in the coming days. State treasurer Gurnam Singh Pandori said the government should fulfill the promises it made to farmers.

He reiterated the farmers’ demands — Rs 5 lakh help for families of farmers who had lost their lives in the Delhi Andolan, a job for one member of their family and waiving of all their debt, strict punishment for all the guilty in the Lakhimpur Kheri murder and the prime culprit, removal of the serious dearth of fertilisers in farming, guaranteed MSP for 23 crops, withdrawal of hefty increases in oil prices, withdrawal of electricity bill 2020 and the Air Pollution Bill 2020, implementation of the Swaminathan Report, four times compensation and 30 per cent allowance to be given for lands coming under the newly constructed Jammu Katra Highway, stopping the sale of drugs, release of pending dues of sugarcane and basmati.

Leaders warned that their struggle would continue as long as their demands remain unmet.

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