NAWANSHAHR:Strongly condemns department's vindictive policy
Protest letters to be submitted to District Officers on June 8
An emergency meeting of the Presidium of Government Teachers' Union, Punjab was held through video conferencing under the chairmanship of state president Sukhwinder Singh Chahal. Releasing the decision of the meeting to the press here today , the state general secretary Kuldeep Singh Daurka said that the education department has been ignoring teachers' issues for a long time. Teachers' rights and legitimate demands include cancellation of charge sheets issued to teachers, regularisation of services of temporary teachers, timely promotions of all categories of teachers , problems related to mid-day meal, rationalization, smartization of all schools, rational distribution of grants, keeping thousands of teachers out of schools in the guise of non-scientific projects, arbitrarily increasing the quota of direct recruitment to 25%, encouraging corruption by delaying enquiries in corruption related cases, fabricated indictments against union leaders, etc, he said . Many issues like extension of service, non-delivery of children's books on time and completion, non-investigation of uniform scam of Rs. 77 crore etc. have not been resolved till date , said Daurka.
"The organization feels that instead of resolving the teachers' issues, the leaders are being targeted and humiliated by fabricating allegations against them in the spirit of revenge, " he said, adding that as per the latest developments, the state president of Government Teachers' Union Sukhwinder Singh Chahal was being targeted by issuing chargesheets to him under the guise of departmental enquiry. During the Patiala Morcha on the issue of pay cut, education officials are upset and angry over the exemplary and adventurous role played by Chahal, said Daurka. He added that by targeting the state president, the authorities wanted to silence the voice of the teachers and the union won't let it happen .
In the first phase of the struggle for resolving the long pending teachers' issues and for the cancellation of the state president's charge sheet, after the district level meetings on June 8 across Punjab , protest letters would be sent to the Chief Minister and Punjab Education Minister through the district education officers. The union demanded from the Education Minister that the teachers' issues should be resolved immediately and retaliatory action against the agitating leaders should be stopped immediately.