Teachers to suspend evaluation work
Amritsar, January 12
A meeting of the district council of university and college teachers from major colleges of the city, including DAV College, BBK DAV College, DAV College of Education, Khalsa College, Khalsa College for Women, Khalsa College of Education, Hindu College, SN College and SDSP College Rayya, was held here on Thursday. They unanimously rejected the state government’s decision to reduce the retirement age from 60 years to 58 years in its 7th Pay Commission notification for college teachers.
Terming the decision discriminatory, they said it was against the Grant-in-Aid Act in 1979 by the Punjab Government, where the retirement age of teachers was fixed at 60 years. DAV College teacher Dr Gurdas Sekhon, who is also a member of the PCCTU, Amritsar, said aided college staff was not getting pension, so retirement age should not be as per the government employees.
“Also, the staff of aided colleges is under the governess of university calendar, which depicts the retirement age of 60 years for college and university teachers,” said Dr Sekhon, general secretary, PCCTU. Further Dr Sekhon pointed out that the UGC was recommending retirement age of 65 years for college/university teachers whereas the Punjab Government was working reversely.
In this context, recently the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Non-Govt Aided Colleges Management Federation (NGACMF), Principals’ Associations, Punjab Chandigarh Colleges Teachers’ Union (PCCTU) and Un-aided Private Colleges’ body also expressed resentment over the decision. All colleges will observe strike on January 18.
Dr BB Yadav, district president, PCCTU, said it had been decided to boycott the evaluation work in all the universities on January 16 in protest against reduction of retirement age. “On January 18, all colleges will remain shut and memorandums would be submitted to Deputy Commissioners in all district headquarters as neither the Higher Education Minister nor the CM is giving us time meet them to raise our issues,” said Dr Seema Jaitly, Women Convener (Punjab), PCCTU.
