College teachers take out protest march across Punjab against AAP govt

The joint action committee of 136 aided colleges of Punjab, which includes members of the managements, principals and teachers, has been protesting against Mann government from the past two months.

The protesting college teachers said that Mann government has given another serious blow to the aided colleges, which have already suffered a downturn due to the anti-higher education policies of the previous governments, by reducing the grant. A protest march was taken out by the joint action committee in all the districts of Punjab today and demand letters were given to the deputy commissioners.

State president of the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union (PCCTU) Dr. Vinay Sophat said, “After independence, no government in the country tried to reduce the retirement age from 60 years to 58 years. The union government also retires its employees at 60 years. But Mann government, which calls itself education-friendly, is going the wrong way. The teachers of aided colleges do not even have the facility of pension.”

PCCTU secretary Dr Gurdas Sekhon said, “Teachers of aided colleges have been left confused by the anti-teacher changes in the revised UGC 7th Pay Commission notification issued by the Punjab government last year. In the notification issued by the UGC, there was a mention of keeping retirement age as before but the Punjab government, on the other hand in the notification, in clause 13.2, said that the service conditions of the teachers working in the aided colleges should be reduced to those of the government employees. The saddest part is that the Punjab government has not corrected its mistake till date due to which there is dissatisfaction among all the teachers.”

Ludhiana district president Dr Chamkaur Singh said that there has been a gate dharna and locking of colleges for a month against the government order to reduce the retirement age of professors of aided colleges from 60 to 58 years. “Professors are being forced to retire and the ministers of the government are blindfolded,” he said.

Dr Sofat said that UGC’s 7th Pay Commission 2016, which the Punjab government has already implemented after a delay of six years, recommends the retirement of professors at 65. “By reducing it further from 60 to 58, Punjab government is violating the 44-year-old Grant in Aid Act 1979, which the PCCTU strongly opposes,” he said.

Executive member Dr Raman Sharma said that Mann government should understand that the youth of Punjab is fleeing abroad due to the bad policies of Punjab government. The protesting teachers said if the Punjab government won’t accept their reasonable demands, then they will take this issue to the Punjab assembly in the near future and ‘will send bottles of his blood to the minister.’