Police foil contractual staff march

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 25

The police today foiled the plan of members of the Punjab State Contractual Employees’ Union to take out a protest march in the city. After being intercepted by the police near the District Administrative Complex, the protesters burnt an effigy of the state government outside the complex.

Contractual employees are irked with the state government for maintaining silence on their demand for regularisation of services. The members of the Punjab State Contractual Employees’ Union today planned to stage a protest.

Raising anti-government slogans, the union leaders deride the state government for not waking up to the demands of the teachers working on a contractual basis under the Special Training Resourceperson (STR), Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative and Innovative Education schemes (AIE). 

The members of the union said despite the fact that one of the protesting teachers sustained burn injuries during a protest in Bathinda, the state government was still ignoring the demand of teachers pertaining to regularisation of their services.

Addressing the protesters, union leader Veerpal Kaur Sidhana said due to anti-employee and anti-people policies of the state government, people across the state were fed up with the government. She further accused the state government of biding the time till the Code of Conduct comes into force ahead of the Assembly elections.

“The state government has been making false and tall promises regarding regularising the services of contractual employees, but the promises remain on paper as the government wants to pass the time till the Code of Conduct comes into force after which it would express its inability to fulfil any promise,” she said.

She said the state government was yet to issue a notification to sustain its promise and none of the higher officials in the departments is aware of the process. 

The union members said while the Supreme Court of India had implemented the landmark decision of equal pay for equal work, but the Punjab government was taking regressive steps like regularising the contractual employees by giving them only basic salary for the first few years.

Members of the Lehra Mohabbat Thermal Employees’ Union; GNDTP Employees’ Union; MGNREGA Workers’ Union, Bharatiya Kisan Union; Bharatiya Kisan Union (Krantikari); Water Supply and Sewerage Board Contractual Employees’ Union; and Democratic Teachers’ Front also took part in the protest.