Mohali: Teachers’ body protest outside MC office over multiple duty postings

The union alleged that instead of ensuring safety and basic facilities during duty hours, officials are adopting a disrespectful attitude towards teachers

Government Teachers Union Punjab and Office employees of directorate of public instruction (DPI) staged a protest outside the municipal corporation on Thursday, alleging excessive workload from being assigned multiple government duties simultaneously.

The union warned that if the administration does not stop its anti-employee attitude, the agitation will be intensified further. (HT File)

Around 150 teachers were present around 3 pm, and protested against stress and workload caused by municipal corporation election work, census responsibilities and, in some cases, the ongoing drug census.

Union leaders stated that teachers and employees are already burdened with non-academic duties.

Despite this, the administration is mentally harassing teachers and employees by assigning them dual duties of Census and MC elections.

The union alleged that instead of ensuring safety and basic facilities during duty hours, officials are adopting a disrespectful attitude towards teachers.

“We are already handling census duty, and now election duty has been added. Some colleagues are also engaged in the drug census duty. It is becoming impossible to manage all these responsibilities together,” said Manpreet Singh, general secretary, Government Teachers Union.

During the protest, the leaders demanded that teachers and employees should be treated with respect and dignity, and dual duties should be withdrawn immediately, ensuring proper safety measures for employees engaged in Census duty.

The union warned that if the administration does not stop its anti-employee attitude, the agitation will be intensified further.

Responding to the concerns, municipal commissioner Sundeep Singh Garha said such deployments are mandated by both the Union and state governments.

“These government officials are required for completing the duties assigned by the central and state government. It is a matter of timing that census and election work have overlapped.

We understand their concerns and are trying to support them as much as possible,” Garha said.

Ravinder Singh Pappi (president), and other leaders, Gurvinder Singh, Randhir Singh were present during the protest.