Teachers burn govt effigy at Bathinda rally

Monday, 18/01/2016

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BATHINDA: Members of various teachers’ unions held a protest under the banner of joint teachers’ front (JTF) at the mini-secretariat here on Sunday and burnt the effigy of Punjab government.

Members of the Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha burning an effigy of the Punjab government outside the mini-secretariat in Bathinda on Sunday.

They were demanding regular jobs for those employed on contract basis and release of pending salaries.

State committee member of the JTF, Jagsir Sahota, said Punjab government was not sincere in accepting the demands of the teachers.

“The government has retracted from its written promises time and again, so, teachers across Punjab staged protests in all district headquarters under the banner of the JTF,” he said.

Another JTF leader Harjeet Singh Jeeda said they wanted that services of teachers working under various projects and schemes on contract basis should be regularised and pending salaries be released.

“The government has not released the arrears of dearness allowance to the teachers. The teachers also demand recognition of degrees issued by universities of other states at the time of promotions and also remove the condition of annual confidential report of five years at the promotion time and formation of new pay commission,” he said.

The JTF leaders announced that if the government didn’t act on their demands, a mega protest rally would be held in Bathinda on February 7.

COPS LOCK PROTESTERS IN BUILDING
Members of ETT Unemployed Teachers’ Union, who have cleared the teacher eligibility test (TET), staged a protest here on Sunday, but they couldn’t go according to their plan to hold a rally in the city as the police foiled their attempt to do so.

In their bid to not let the teachers take out a protest rally, the police locked them inside the Teachers Home building for three hours.

State president of the union, Joginder Singh, said they had planned a peaceful protest march from Teachers’ Home to the DC office against government’s failure to give them employment, but the police acted in an undemocratic manner to foil their protest.

He said from since 2013, as many as 8,000 candidates had cleared the TET, but all of them were unemployed and many of them were nearing the maximum age limit set for securing a government job.

“The government announced to fill 4,901 posts of ETT teachers before the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, but later cancelled the proposal. At that time, there were only 3,500 eligible candidates and now we are about 8,000. The government has announced to fill only 4,500 posts for ETT teachers,” he said.

He said they came to know through RTI that there were 10,000 vacant posts of teachers in schools across Punjab.