After overnight dharna by teachers, Punjab Finance Minister Cheema announces release of salary grants for aided schools

Teachers of aided schools of Punjab, who had been staging a dharna outside the DC office, Tarn Taran since November 7, have announced to call off their dharna. This decision comes after cabinet minister Hardeep Singh Mudian met teachers for the second time in the span of 24 hours to announce that their demand for a complete salary disbursal for past nine months had been accepted by the state government. Mudian said that the salaries would be disbursed on Monday, i.e. November 10.

Around 1,700 teachers from the aided schools of Punjab had been protesting the delay in getting their salaries and on November 7, teachers staged an overnight dharna in front of the DC office in Tarn Taran after their attempt to offer mass arrests was not successful.

“It is a big achievement for our teachers, who had been struggling financially without their salaries since almost a year. The aided school managements and teachers had been from running pillar to post, from one minister or official to another to get their dues. Now that we are forced to come out on streets, the state government finally realised our suffering,” said Gurmeet Singh Madnipur, the state president of the Aided School Teachers Union.

Madnipur said that Finance Minister Harpal Cheema at circuit house in Amritsar notified his department immediately to release the salary grants for these schools. We also told him that if grants could not be released in time, then teachers should be merged with the Education Department and government schools,” said Madnipur.

There are a total of 1,700 in-service employees in 416 aided schools across the state. Madnipur said some of these were legacy schools, running from before Independence. “There were 512 aided schools but now these have been cut down to 416 as some closed down due to financial distress. As many as 8,100 posts of teaching and non-teaching staludhiff are lying vacant while these schools remain dependent on the grant-in aide scheme of state government,” said Madnipur.