Teacher Organisations Oppose Mandatory Drug, Social and Economic Survey Duties; Warn of Agitation

Ashok Kaura

Jun 19, 2026 - 12:05

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PHAGWARA: The Kapurthala unit of the Gazetted and Non-Gazetted SC/BC Employees Welfare Federation Punjab has strongly criticised the Punjab Government and local administration for allegedly assigning teachers to non-academic duties, including the ongoing drug, social and economic surveys, and has demanded that such assignments be made only with the consent of employees.

Addressing the media, Federation leaders led by district president Satwant Toora, along with Santokh Malli, Manjit Gaat, Lakhvir Chand, Balwinder Masih, Manjit Das and Balwinder Nidhadak, said that before coming to power, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann had assured that teachers would not be burdened with non-educational assignments. However, they alleged that the situation on the ground was completely different, with teachers continuing to be assigned a large number of administrative and survey-related duties at the cost of classroom teaching.

The federation leaders claimed that repeated deployment of teachers for non-academic work was adversely affecting the education of students studying in government schools, particularly those belonging to economically weaker sections. They pointed out that teachers had already been assigned duties related to census operations, health card programmes, booth-level officer responsibilities, master trainer assignments and various administrative tasks in government offices. According to the federation, these assignments were reducing the time available for teaching and impacting the quality of education.

Satwant Toora said that the recent orders issued by the local administration regarding the drug, social and economic surveys included a registration link seeking voluntary participation from employees willing to perform the duty. However, he alleged that despite the provision for consent, teachers were being repeatedly contacted and pressured by officials to report for duty immediately. He further claimed that the status and responsibilities of teaching staff were often ignored while assigning such duties and that teachers were being deployed without considering their professional roles and workload.

Expressing concern, the federation leaders stated that if the administration was genuinely seeking volunteers through the registration process, employees willing to participate would register and perform the work accordingly. They argued that forcing teachers to undertake these assignments despite the consent-based mechanism amounted to unnecessary pressure and would not be accepted by teacher and employee organisations.

The federation also questioned why the education department was repeatedly being targeted for such duties when employees from various other departments were available. The leaders recalled that during the census exercise, some employees had reportedly managed to get their duties cancelled through political influence and said employee organisations would closely monitor the process this time.

The federation appealed to the Deputy Commissioner, Kapurthala, and the local administration to ensure that duties related to the drug, social and economic surveys are assigned only after obtaining employees’ consent and without any coercion. They warned that if the concerns of teachers and employees were ignored, various employee and community organisations could jointly launch an agitation in the near future.

The organisation also alleged that the survey exercise appeared to focus heavily on government publicity. Federation leaders said that if the government was concerned about promoting its achievements, it should also listen to the grievances of employees, whom they described as the backbone of the administration. They claimed that several long-pending demands of employees had remained unresolved during the past four years and alleged that the government had failed to provide meaningful solutions.

Among those present during the press conference were Vinod Kumar, Ashok Mool Niwasi, Rampal, Dinesh Kumar, Sohan Lal, Deepak Sehgal, Jasvir Khalwara, Gursewak and Pawan Kumar, besides other members of the federation.