SBS State University staff pen-down strike enters 5th day
Ferozepur, March 13, 2024: The pen-down strike by the teaching and non-teaching staff of Shaheed Bhagat Singh State University in Ferozepur, who have not been paid their wages for the past six months, entered 5th day today.
Today, they held a gate rally to register their protest with the government. Earlier also, the staff had gone on strike for two weeks and on assurance from the new Vice Chancellor, the staff joined back their duties.
The Joint Action Committee SBS State University Ferozepur members, including Dr Kulbhushan Agnihotri, President ECTA, Gurpreet Singh President, SWA, Dr Rakesh Kumar, General Secretary ECTA, and Satinder Kumar, General Secretary SWS expressed their concerns about the current situation.
Dr.Kulbhushan said that teachers need empathetic treatment, rather than a shallow acknowledgement or short-term glory. Even in this year's budget, there is no increase in the grant of the university. The Joint Action Committee said that the entire staff had gone on strike before. At that time, the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor Professor Sushil Mittal sought 15 days so that a special grant could be issued from the government for the pending salaries of the university staff. But even after 20 days, the government has not released the grant. Therefore, the entire staff is on strike from March 14. He said, the pen-down strike will continue until the government releases a grant for salaries. He said it is very unfortunate that the National Builders have been without wages for six months and it has become difficult to run the day-to-day household affairs.
JAC members said that the government is not paying the salary, but the election duties of the staff are being imposed, which will be opposed. The committee said that if the grant of pending salaries is not released soon, then a protest will be intensified and we will protest in front of the Chandigarh Technical Education Office.