Teachers of aided colleges hold statewide protest over no salaries

Tuesday, 16/12/2014

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AMRITSAR/JALANDHAR/PATIALA: More than 1,500 teachers working in Punjab governmentaided colleges across the state boycotted examination duty on Monday, affecting almost 2.5 lakh college students who were appear in their graduation examinations.

The protesting teachers are demanding the payment of their salaries, now pending for more than 18 months.

Apart from the teachers, more than 2,500 non-teaching staff employed by these colleges have also not been paid salaries.

Though the affiliating universities of these colleges had announced the postponement of the examination scheduled for Monday — after the joint action committee (JAC) of the protesting teachers declared that they would strike work on the day of the examinations — several students reached the exam halls this morning, unaware of the development.

The 136 government-aided colleges in the state are affiliated to Panjab University, Chandigarh; Punjabi University, Patiala; and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

Reacting to the strike, Punjab education minister Surjit Singh Rakhra announced the release of ` 32.91-crore grant to 92 aided colleges on Monday afternoon as the amount due for the second quarter of the 2013-14 financial year.

Kuldeep Singh, president of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU), said another र 175 crore was pending for the last financial year and र 230 crore for this year.

He added that with Monday’s grant, teachers and other staff would get salaries of three months each in 92 colleges.

“T he situation for the remaining 44 colleges remains the same,” he said.

At a meeting of the JAC held at Ludhiana on December 6, it was decided that the ongoing examinations being conducted by all three universities be boycotted on December 15 and 19 and gate rallies be held to protest against the unwarranted delay in the release of grants.

“We are holding a meeting of the committee in Jalandhar on December 17 in which we will decide the next course of action. We will be intensifying our stir,” said Kuldeep.