Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today assured the Teaching and Non-teaching associations of the state that the government would sympathetically consider all their legitimate demands and resolve them in a time bound manner.
Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s office said that the Chief Minister held a series of meetings with different associations who called on him here at his official residence. These associations include groups of Zila Parishad ETT Teachers Association, Rashtiya Madhmik Sikhsha Abhiyaan (RMSA) Teachers association, School Lab Attendants Association, Education Guarantee Scheme Association, 7654 Teachers association and Sikhya Provider Association. Expressing deep concern over the inordinate delay in the implementation of decisions taken at the Chief Minister’s level in various meeting, Mr Badal said that no laxity of any sort in this matter would be tolerated in future and the accountability of the concerned officers would be fixed for such delays.
During the meeting with ETT Association, the Chief Minister directed the Rural Development and Panchayat department to expedite the process of setting up the Directorate of ETT (Zila Parishad) Teachers with Director Rural Development and Panchayats as its Director. He also directed the department to ensure that the necessary formalities like appointing the Additional Director, District Education Officers and others on deputation basis from the Education department should be completed at the earliest. Mr Badal also mentioned that the 5000 ETT Teachers of Zila Parishad who had been shifted to Education department but were currently working in the Rural Development and Panchayat department were technically the employees of Education department.
The Chief Minister further assured the delegation that the process of shifting these teachers from Rural Development and Panchayat department to the Education department would be continued on regular basis as per the commitment of the state government. Mr Badal also directed the Rural Development and Panchayat department to complete the process of allotting PRAN number under the Contributory Pension Scheme to all these teachers by March 31.
During deliberations with Sikhya Provider Association, the Chief Minister assured the delegation that he would pursue the genuine demands of the Union with the Centre government and would personally write a letter to the Union Human Resource Development Minister for considering these demands in a sympathetic manner. In a meeting with the School Laboratory Attendants, the Chief Minister directed the Education department to explore the feasibility of removing the pay anomaly of these SLAs besides looking into the matter of providing promotion channel to them.
Prominent amongst those present in the meeting included Education Minister Mr Sikander Singh Maluka, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Mr Mantar Singh Brar, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr SK Sandhu, Principal Secretary Rural Development and Panchayat Mr Mandeep Singh Sandhu, Special Principal Secretaries to the Chief Minister Mr KJS Cheema and Mr Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, Secretary Education Mr Ashok Gupta, Director Rural Development and Panchayat Mr S Karuna Raju and Director General School Education (DGSE) Mr KS Pannu.