A two hours strike and dharnas were observed in all the government aided colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh on the call given by Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union against anti-teachers policies of the Chandigarh administration, Punjab Government and the UGC.
Prof P S Gill, President, Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union, lamented the fact that the Punjab Government is following anti teachers policy and have denied pension to the Government Aided College Teachers. He emphasized that the age of retirement of Punjab Government employees has been hiked to 60 years where as the retirement age of the aided college teachers has not been raised by two years. He said that the union shall not relent till it’s done .
Prof Iqbal Preet Kaur, President ,DAV College Teachers Union and Convener (PCCTU) said “The Director Higher Education is resorting to denial of all that is legitimately our right. The Higher Education Department has to follow Punjab Civil Service Rules as well as guidelines of UGC as adopted by Punjab government. But the recent decisions by the DHE have been taken in violation of rules regarding time bound promotions and grant of increments for acquiring M.Phil. /Ph.D. degrees and thus depriving the teachers of their rights. For example, an order dated 11.07.2013 of the department imposed upon us the entire UGC scheme of regulations dated 30.06.2010 which again is in violation of the policy of Punjab Government regarding UGC regulations . We shall not take things lying down. We will fight back tooth and nail.”
Prof Ghanshyam Dev ,District President, Chandigarh Unit, criticized the latest UGC Guidelines of 13th June,2013 for Career Advancement and out rightly rejected it on behalf of PCCTU .He has made a call to all the teachers of Chandigarh Unit to attend the national rally in Delhi against the said UGC notification. We shall now bow against injustice and get what is rightfully ours.
Prof I P S Sidhu ,General Secretary, Chandigarh Unit of PCCTU, warned the Chandigarh Administration and called for escalation of the agitation against the education department. Its policies have been causing much harassment and mental agony to over a thousand teachers working in different government and government aided colleges of the city.The next strike is on the 13th August,he added.