Teachers call off 57-day-long protest on Soni’s assurance
STAND-OFF ENDS In his address, education minister says initiatives to end the impasse from the govt side should have begun much earlier
PATIALA:AFTER almost two months of deadlock between the government and the protesting teachers, the umbrella body of the protesters Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha called off the agitation from Patiala after getting “concrete assurances” from education minister OP Soni on Saturday.
The minister, along with a battery of senior officials from the education department and civil administration, visited the protest site and addressed the teachers outside Gurdwara Dukhniwaran Sahib, here.
Serious negotiations started a week ago after the teachers showed reluctance to end their 50-day-long protest despite their transfers to distant stations and suspensions of conveners and co-conveners of the morcha. The teachers agreed to end the protest after a four-hour-long meeting with Soni in Amritsar on Friday evening.
Addressing the teachers on Saturday, Soni said the Congress government has positive approach towards teachers and will make every possible effort to boost morale of the teaching fraternity in Punjab.
“It is sad that the teachers had to sit on protest for so long due to some kind of misunderstandings at both the ends. The dialogue should have begun much earlier from the government side. Moreover, I should have visited teachers personally to listen to their grievances,” Soni said.
The minister said the teachers were recruited through backdoor channels, therefore, their services needed to be regularised. “The government knows about the difficulties being faced by the teachers, but we need time to streamline the education system,” the minister said.
The teachers are protesting against the state government’s decision to regularise services of 8,886 contractual teachers on a monthly salary of ₹15,300. The teachers were working under the Centre-sponsored Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) schemes on contract and were being paid a monthly salary between ₹40,000 and ₹45,000.
Teachers recruited under the 5178 scheme of the state government were also part of the protest as their jobs have not been regularised even as they have completed three-year probation period.
Morcha convener Baaj Singh Khaira said it was victory of the teachers’ movement as the education minister addressed the gathering and made some concrete assurances. “We will not end our fight here and will take
our demands to the logical conclusion,” Khaira said.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the morcha urged the education minister to replace education secretary Krishan Kumar for his unruly behaviour with the teachers.
THE CHIEF MINISTER HAS ALSO ORDERED NOMINATION OF TWO ENVIRONMENTALISTS ON PANEL INSTEAD OF ONE