Computer teachers protest near CM’s house in Sangrur

A large number of computer teachers, including women, from various parts of the state have been staging a round-a-clock protest near the residence of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Sangrur-Patiala main road since December 14. Computer teachers, who have been teaching in government schools since 2005, have been protesting against the non-revision of dearness allowance (DA) for the past three years.

Nardeep Sharma, Sangrur district president of ‘Computer Adhyapak Union’, said the state government had been making promises with regard to revision of the DA to them for long. He said they had been recently assured that their file on the DA revision would be cleared by December 12, but to no avail.

Sharma added that they had been again promised that their pending DA file would be cleared by Tuesday (December 17). So they would stay near the residence of the CM on the main road here until the government cleared their file and issued a notification in this regard.

Sharma said they had been spending nights under the sky at the protest site since December 14 as the administration had not allowed them to put up a tent there. In such a situation, woman teachers had been suffering in a big way, he added.

Meanwhile, the teachers' relay fast today entered Day 107 outside the district administration complex here in support of their demands, including shifting of computer teachers from the Punjab Information and Communication Technology Education Society to the Education Department and implementation of Sixth Pay Commission.