UGC payscales: Punjab, Chandigarh teachers to intensify protests, hold dharnas
A three-hour long campus dharna between 10am and 1pm was held at the Panjab University campus today by PUTA in front of the VC office.
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Members of PUTA protest at PU, Chandigarh on Monday. (Photo: Express photo)Teachers across five universities, 48 government colleges and 145 aided colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh Monday held three hour long dharnas in their institutions demanding implementation of UGC payscales and withdrawal of the decision of delinking of teachers’ grades from UGC payscales. They have planned to further intensify their protests, until their demands are met.
A three-hour long campus dharna between 10am and 1pm was also held at the Panjab University campus today by PUTA in front of the VC office, as per the call given by PFUCTO (Punjab Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisations), in support of their demands. Mritunjay Kumar, President PUTA, addressed the protesting teachers and rued the fact that required notification to implement the 7th UGC payscales has not been issued yet despite the assurance given by the Education Minister Pargat Singh and Krishan Kumar, Principal Secretary, Higher Education.
The minister had himself visited the dharna site on October 19, after which the Chain Hunger Strike, which began on September 5, was suspended by PFUCTO only when the minister agreed to their demand in principle.
“It is unfortunate that teachers are being forced to go into the protest mode again when the all other states implemented the new UGC payscales long time back, and even Punjab has implemented the 6th Pay Commission,” said Mritunjay. Terming the delay “a breach of trust”, Jagwant Singh, General Secretary, PFUCTO, said that despite agreement of demands by the minister, “who had himself reached us and offered juice to the teachers on chain-fast promising early redressal of their grievances,” the demands had not been met.
“There has been no announcement from the government. The teachers in the universities and colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh are the only section of employees still awaiting revision in their payscales,” added Singh.
HS Kingra, President, PFUCTO said that “the teachers plan to intensify their protest and have decided to hold candle marches across different cities on November 11. These will be followed by dharnas in front of residences of ministers of Punjab on November 16. On November 23 we plan to court arrest in front of the residence of the CM Charanjit Singh Channi at Morinda after a rally. There will be continuous disruption of activity on campuses for an indefinite period till their demands are met.”
The demands by the teachers of Punjab and Chandigarh have been long pending. The teachers had in September also staged a large sit-in protest in UT with hundreds taking mass casual leaves. They had ceased work to protest against the unwarranted delay in the implementation of UGC grades in Punjab and Chandigarh which are yet to implement UGC payscales notified in November 2017 and UGC regulations notified in 2018.
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