NAWANSHAHR:A delegation of district unit of Government Teachers' Union, Punjab led by state general secretary Kuldeep Singh Daurka, former BPEO Karnail Singh Rahon, Sohan Singh and Mohan Lal today met Congress MLAs Angad Singh and Darshan Lal Mangupur and gave them a letter of protest in the name of the Chief Minister and the Education Minister. The leaders said that during their Patiala agitation the government had promised the teachers that all their alleged victimizations would be cancelled and a committee of four ministers would work out a policy to resolve the teachers' issues within 90 days. The government later became completely silent on the demands, they said, adding that instead of resolving teachers' issues, the education department issued a fabricated charge sheet to Sukhwinder Singh Chahal, the state president of Government Teachers' Union Punjab, who was leading the struggle. The union leaders maintained that to charge the state president is to destroy democracy and silence the struggling people. The organization had earlier held protests at all the district centers of Punjab to draw the attention of the government to the demands of teachers and had sent a letter of protest on June 8 through the Deputy Commissioners and District Education Officers across the state. "But the government has remained completely silent on their demands, due to which there is a huge outcry among the teachers against the government, " Daurka said, adding the MLAs today assured them that all their demands would be discussed with the government. The teachers warned the Punjab government that if the government did not break its silence on their demands, the struggle would be intensified in the coming days. On this occasion Kuldeep Singh along with Desh Raj Bajjo, Block President Baljit Singh, Balkar Singh, Narinder Singh Gurdish Singh, Rajinder Singh Dehal, Gurdial Singh, Som Nath, Anil Kumar Mann, Rama Kanta etc. were present.
These are teacher demands, as per union:
False, fabricated chargesheet issued to state president Sukhwinder Singh Chahal should be cancelled and remaining police cases, victimizations, chargesheets, notices etc. should also be withdrawn, all classes of teachers should be promoted before transfers, policy should be made to make temporary teachers permanent, the quota for direct recruitment should be restored to 25% instead of 50% and the age requirement for direct recruitment should be removed for the employees serving in the department, class wise teachers should be appointed in primary schools and subject teachers should be appointed in upper primary classes, books, stationery and scholarships to students should be provided immediately, the extension of service to tainted officers should be withdrawn and strict action should be taken against corrupt employees, Rs 77 crore uniform scam should be investigated, duties of teachers during Covid-19 should be imposed according to their educational qualification and status, imposition of unreasonable duties should be stopped immediately. Further, statements hurting the dignity of teachers by the Ministers should stop immediately.