Members of different teachers’ bodies went on mass casual leave to press for the implementation of the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) notification. They are enraged over the indifferent attitude of the state government in uplifting the standard of teaching in the state.

In the absence of regular staff members of the colleges staying away from work, teaching could not be carried out in colleges across the state. The teachers, however, blamed the government for making students suffer the loss of studies ahead of the April examinations.

Teachers’ bodies of five universities — Panjab University, Chandigarh, Punjabi University, Patiala, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana - participated in the protest while pressing for the implementation of pay scales.

Nearly 1,500 members of teachers’ bodies of five universities in the state gathered at Sector-25 rally ground in Chandigarh today and staged a protest which they termed ‘successful’. They also made an appeal to the state government to implement the MHRD notification at the earliest.

“Teachers of all the universities in the state got together for what they believe is their right to be treated on a par with what MHRD has stated in its notification. However, the state government has been sitting on it without giving any concrete assurance to the teachers. That is why we had to take this step. It was by far an unprecedented participation of teachers from different universities of the state,” said Prof Jaipal Singh, president of the Punjab Government College Teachers’ Association (PGCTA) and vice-president of PFUCTO.

Dr Jagwant Singh, general secretary of both the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union and PFUCTO, said the federation has decided to give some time to the government as it has learnt that their demand would approved in principle soon.