Punjab cabinet to discuss status of 2,200 contractual school teachers today

On Tuesday, finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal gave a royal ignore to the teachers, who were demanding regular job as per the conditions notified during their appointment in November 2014.

The Punjab government is in a fix over the job status of 2,200 master-cadre contractual school teachers who have not been paid salary since November last year when their three-year contract had expired.

Contractual school teachers holding a protest at Hanuman Chowk in Bathinda on Tuesday. (HT Photo)

They were supposed to get regular job at the expiry of the contract, but that hasn’t happened to date.

On Tuesday, finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal gave a royal ignore to the teachers, who were demanding regular job as per the conditions notified during their appointment in November 2014. The protesting teachers also burnt an effigy of the state government in front of the Congress office here.

The contractual teachers have not been paid their salary of Rs 8,000 for 10 months now.

The matter will come up in the Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, where school education minister OP Soni will apprise the council of ministers of the issue.

“Their salaries are being disbursed from this month and we are also taking up the matter in the cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Let us see what happens,” Soni said. The issue of regularising their job is pending with the finance department.

Besides these 2,200 master-cadre teachers, the two-year contractual period of 6,500 primary school teachers also expires this month and they too are looking for regular job as per the state’s notification during their recruitment in September-November 2016.

The master-cadre teachers also staged protest in Patiala and Amritsar.