As ground-level political activity gathers pace in the run-up to the Punjab Assembly polls in 2027, government employees — including teacher unions — are stepping up pressure on ministers and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs to address long-pending demands.
Under the banner of the Punjab Employees and Pensioners Front, Sanjha Employees Forum and the Punjab State Ministerial Services Union, a protest rally was held near the residence of Cabinet Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO, with a large number of government teacher delegates taking part.
To avoid being gheraoed by protestors, the cabinet minister reached the site and received the memorandum, assuring the delegates that their demands would be considered.
Teacher representatives Gurbinder Khaira and Ashwani Awasthi said key demands include 18 per cent dearness allowance, restoration of the old pension scheme, regularisation of all categories of temporary staff, and implementation of minimum pay scales for honorarium and incentive-based employees — all of which, they said, were promised during the last Assembly elections.
“Teachers and government employees have been denied dearness allowance, while the state government distributes Rs 1,000 per woman without justification,” Awasthi said.
He further demanded cancellation of the central pay scale and implementation of the Punjab pay scale, revision and restoration of discontinued allowances, and abolition of the Rs 200 levy described by them as a “jizya tax” being charged from each government employee.
He added that employees were being overworked but not receiving due allowances or incentives, questioning the fairness of the current system.
The representatives have now sought a meeting with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Finance Minister Harpal Cheema, while also planning a state-level rally in Chandigarh on July 17.
In the months leading up to the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections, several groups of teachers and teaching job aspirants had staged repeated protests against the then Congress government, including during Charanjit Singh Channi’s tenure as chief minister.
Despite strong support from teachers contributing to AAP’s sweeping victory in 2022, unions say several issues — including regularisation, dearness allowance and fresh recruitment — remain unresolved.
