PHAGWARA: On a call given by the Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha and Democratic Teachers’ Front hundreds of teachers gathered today outside the Phillaur Tehsil Complex to protest against the Punjab government.
The demonstrators burned an effigy of the Education Minister and raised slogans against the administration, accusing it of failing to fulfil promises made to educators and other sections of society.
Addressing the gathering, Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha state convener Surinder Kumar Puari, district conveners Karnail Phillaur and Avtar Mahishampur criticized the government, stating that despite forming its mandate on education and healthcare, Punjab’s ruling party had failed to deliver in both sectors. They alleged that the Education Minister frequently backtracks on commitments made in meetings with teacher representatives and has even walked out of ongoing discussions.
The protesting leaders announced that after today’s district-level demonstration, a massive state-level rally would be organized on March 8 at Anandpur Sahib.
Their major demands include immediate rollback of salary cuts for PTIs and Art & Craft teachers, proper implementation of promotions for lecturers and master cadre teachers by filling all vacant posts.
, shifting computer teachers under the Education Department instead of PICTES Society, implementation of pending pay hikes and dearness allowance, Repeal of the 2018 policies deemed anti-teacher, scrapping the National Education Policy 2020 and replacing it with a Punjab-specific policy, restoration of the Old Pension Scheme, an end to non-teaching tasks assigned to educators, including duties as Booth Level Officers (BLOs), completion of transfer processes before the new academic session, monthly opening of the transfer portal for special category teachers, regularization of contractual teachers across different categories, including those in Meritorious and Adarsh Schools, stopping the merger of middle schools.implementation of pending promotions for BPOs, headmasters, principals, and ETT teachers, ensuring that CEPT guidelines do not interfere with actual teaching activities.
The protest saw the participation of several teacher leaders, including Jaspal Sandhu, Kavish Walia, Rupeshner Garha, Lekh Raj Punjabi, Jasdeep Singh, Harish Kumar, Jagjit Singh Randhawa, Vishal Saini, Rajvinder Singh, Jasveer Singh, Kamal Sharma, Balbir Kumar, Rishi Raj, Sukhwinder Ram, Kamal Bhardwaj, Rakesh Kumar, Jagsir, Deepak Kumar, Jatinder Moga, Madam Seeta, Pawan Kumar, Surjit Singh, Satvinder Singh, Sukesh Kumar, Satish Kumar, Prem Pal Aujla, and Hari Yadav, among others.
As tensions rise between the government and educators, the March 8 rally at Anandpur Sahib is expected to be a significant moment in the ongoing struggle for teachers’ rights in Punjab.