PAU teachers stage protest on Day 1 of Kisan Mela

Punjab Agricultural University Teachers Association (PAUTA) continued their protest on the 24th day and staged a dharna, followed by a rally, on the first day of Kisan Mela at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) today. Teachers, with their demands written on placards, marched across the campus during the mela.

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The teachers are protesting the ‘callous' attitude of the university administration and the state government as the university continues to be the only one where the staff has not received revised house rent allowance, medical allowance, city compensatory allowance and gratuity.

Although PAU has been ranked the top agricultural university in India for the second consecutive year, there is ‘indiscriminatory’ attitude of the state government towards the teachers of PAU, said the protesting teachers.

Dr Mandeep Singh Gill, president of PAUTA, said, “We have requested and appealed to the state government, along with the university administration, to provide revised allowances, gratuity and arrears as per the revised basic pay at par with the public sector colleges and universities of Punjab, but to no avail.”

“Left with no other option, we took the path of protest and also staged a dharna during the mela to tell the dignitaries and people coming here about the issues being faced by us,” he added.

The protesting teachers pointed out that the state government had already notified revised allowances and gratuity for teachers of other universities, but the PAU teachers were being denied the same. The PAU Pensioners Teachers Association is also supporting the ongoing protest as the state had not revised the pension of teachers of PAU and Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, who retired before January 1, 2016.

GADVASU Retired Teachers Association (GADVASURTA) said although revision of pay scales and pension, including pensionary benefits, had been implemented to different segments of the Punjab Government employees, but the GADVASU has implemented the revised UGC pay scales and pension wef April 1, 2023. Strangely enough the pension of the GADVASU teachers, who retired before January 1, 2016, had not been revised at all, said Dr SS Singh, General Secretary of GADVASURTA.