Unions come out in support of protesting teachers

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, November 16

Various unions, including farmer bodies, student unions and labour federations, have extended their support to SSA/RMSA teachers and members of the Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha, who have been protesting against the state government’s job regularisation offer at a reduced pay in Patiala for long over.

Baldev Singh, a member of the Democratic Mulazam Federation, said, “We want the Punjab Government to look into the matter of teachers as they have been protesting for a long time. The government should regularise their services at a good pay as they had been performing their duties for the past 10 to 12 years.”

Meanwhile, the unions have also announced to join the protest to be held by teachers in front of Education Minister OP Soni and Finance Minister Manpreet Badal’s residence on November 18. The teachers will also gherao the residence of Nawanshahr MLA Angad Singh on the same day.

Kuldeep Daurka, co-convener of the Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha, said, “We demand that teachers should be regularised immediately on the full pay scale. Capt. Amarinder Singh should step in and sort out the issue at the earliest.”

When asked a number of teachers have already accepted the government proposal for regularisation at a salary of Rs15,300 and the Education Department is saying that more teachers will likely to accept the offer, Daurka said the government was adopting wrong tactics and was luring teachers by offering stations of their choice.

He said the government was misguiding the people by presenting manipulated facts. “The figures provided by the government regarding the number of teachers, who have accepted the regularisation officer, are wrong as not more than 500 SSA/RMSA teachers have accepted the offer,” he added.

Another union member Hardeep Singh said, “As many unions have announced to support our demand, we hope that the government will soon take a call on it. Teachers will keep on protesting till their demands are met. If any untoward situation takes place, the government will be responsible for that.”