E-Paper
Teachers in Ludhiana protest against non-implementation of 7th UGC pay scale
Teachers in Ludhiana suspended all teaching-and-admission-related work and raised slogans against the state government, which “failed to fulfil” its election promise, during the protest
Teachers of the local unit of Government College Teachers’ Association on Monday staged a dharna at SCD Government College, from 11 am to 1 pm, against the non-implementation of revised UGC pay scales by the Punjab government as per the seventh pay commission and de-linking from UGC.
Teachers suspended all teaching-and-admission-related work and raised slogans against the state government, which “failed to fulfil” its election promise.
They said Punjab is the only state in the country which was yet to implement UGC pay scales notified in November 2017.
“Punjab college/university teachers are demanding their rights at par with teachers in other states of India where 7th pay commission has been implemented. Even in Punjab, college/university teachers are the only lot who have not been granted their rightful pay scale, while all the other departments of the government have been granted the benefits of the next pay scale,” a professor said.
Another teacher said that on the contrary, the government rather freezed the dearness allowance instalments of the college/university teachers.
“This happened despite a written promise by more than 50 MLAs of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and after chief minister’s and finance minister’s declaration in Punjab assembly that Punjab teachers will be granted 7th pay scale before Himachal Pardesh. It’s a high time for the government to honour its promise and implement the pay scale in Punjab and roll back delinking from UGC decision ,” a protester stated.
The teachers’ associations would hold dharnas and rallies on different dates at different places in Punjab during August 2022 and if Punjab Government fails to implement the 7th pay commission during August 2022, a state-level rally would be held at Barnala, the hometown of the education minister, a teacher said.
A similar dharna was staged by teachers of Arya College in Ludhiana.
