Punjab private aided schools' staff to go on mass casual leave tomorrow

Our Correspondent

Mandi Ahmedgarh/Raikot, December 7

Responding to a call given by the Punjab State Government Aided Private Schools Teachers and Other Employees Union, staff posted at private aided schools of the region have applied for mass casual leave for Thursday, when they will join their counterparts from other districts of the state to gherao the residence of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi in Morinda.

Activists of the Punjab Aided School Pensioners Union from the area will also join the protesters who are demanding the implementation of recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission on a par with employees of government schools.

The employees, led by Ravinder Jit Puri, an office-bearer of the local unit of the employees’ union, said teachers and other employees posted at private aided schools of the region falling under Malerkotla and Ludhiana districts had applied for mass casual leave for Thursday to join their counterparts during a scheduled protest in front of the CM’s residence in Morinda on that day.

Referring to an appeal made jointly by president of the union NN Saini and state secretary Ashwani Sharma, Puri alleged that “even now when we were expecting the implementation of recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission on the pattern of employees of government schools, the government, led by CM Charanjit Singh Channi, had disappointed us due to its step-motherly treatment to deny the implementation,” said Puri, adding that the union had expected a lot from Channi as he had also been a student of Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Kharar, an institute of the same category.

Puri said the union had taken an unsavory step to take action after the Chief Minister ignored their request to seek a meeting with him. It has also been demanding a merger with government school staff as more than 70 per cent of the posts of teacher of private-aided schools were lying vacant.