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Protesting Punjabi University teachers to shave their heads today
An assistant professor said that they will hold begging drives, where teachers will ask for money from shopkeepers, traders and common people across city, to mark their protest.
Teachers, under the banner of the Punjabi University Contractual Teachers’ Association (PUCTA), took out a protest march on the varsity campus in Patiala on Sunday and decided to shave their heads to mark the protest on Monday.
An assistant professor Jitender said that they will hold begging drives, where teachers will ask for money from shopkeepers, traders and common people across city, to mark their protest.
“The amount collected will be given to Punjabi University vice-chancellor (V-C) Pro BS Ghuman, so that this can be helpful for him to fill the exchequer of the varsity. The V-C is denying to fulfil our regularisation demands by claiming that they are facing financial crisis,” he added.
The protesters pasted slogans of “We are underpaid assistant professors, instructors, exploited by the university” on their shirts and kurtas. Over 150, contractual assistant professors and contractors from 14 colleges affiliated to the university, its neighbourhood campuses, and main campus have been protesting for job regularisation since past eight days.
Punjabi University has constituent colleges in Mansa, Sardulgarh, Bahadurpur, Barnala, Benra (Dhuri), Chuni Kalan, Dhilwan, Ghanaur, Ghudda, Jaito, Miranpur, and Moonak.
The protesters are demanding regularisation of their services. The protesters alleged that the university is paying a meagre of ₹20,500 to instructors and ₹30,000 to assistant professors per month. They added that such amount was announced by the state government last month after a cabinet meeting.
“I have been working since past five years as a contractual instructor. Even I had received ₹15,000 per month for last five years. The state government is dragging its feet from regularising us. Cleverly, they had hiked our salary by ₹5,500 per month”, said Gurvinder Pal Kaur, a contractual instructor at University College in Miranpur.
Gurjeet Kaur, a contractual assistant professor, said that she had cleared her National Eligibility Test (NET) and completed her Masters in Philosophy (MPhil) but the state government is not regularising her services.
“First the SAD government and now the Congress have ruined our future. After clearing all the parameters, why we were forced to work at a low salary”, she added.
“I have been working at Barnala College as a contractual instructor since past five years. I received ₹15,000 per month salary, out of which I have to pay ₹5,000 as a room rent and without food expenses. Our post is non –teaching, then why the state government is asking for clearing entrance tests,” another protester Gurdeep Singh said.
