On Teachers’ Day, teachers across city take to the streets

Times News Network
Ludhiana: Teachers at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) observed Teachers’ Day as “black day” on Thursday as protest against the state government and the university for leaving their demands unresolved. Agricultural scientists, who have been protesting for 15 days, wore black ribbons on their arms on Thursday. They said that PAU was ranked the number one agricultural university in India for the second consecutive year due to their efforts but the state government and university administration had been ignoring their demands for last 15 days.

Members of Punjab Agricultural University Teachers' Association (Pauta) said that their demands include revision of allowances and gratuity, disbursement of revised pay arrears effective from January 1, 2016, repeal of basic pay notification and addressing of pay parity concerns, reinstatement of the old pension scheme, revision of pensions for teachers who retired before 2016 and disbursement of pending DA instalments.
Pauta president Dr Mandeep Singh Gill said that the Punjab government was not serious about resolving issues. “We have requested the state government as well as the university administration to provide revised allowances, gratuity and arrears as per the revised basic pay at par with public sector colleges and universities of Punjab,” he said.