Teachers, Powercom employees stage separate protests in Mohali
2
Mohali: The city witnessed two major demonstrations on Wednesday as vocational teachers under the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) and Powercom employees staged protests to press for their long-standing demands.
Outside the Punjab School Education Board office, NSQF vocational teachers held a strong protest demanding better pay and job security. Rupinder Singh, district president (Mohali), said 2,633 NSQF teachers have been imparting vocational education to students of Classes IX to XII in government senior secondary schools for over 11 years under the Samagra Shiksha 60:40 programme. "Despite our dedicated service, we face exploitation by outsourcing companies and receive only about ₹18,000 per month after arbitrary deductions," he said.
State president Ranjit Singh Barnala demanded that salaries be raised to Rs 35,075 per month on the lines of Haryana, outsourcing companies be removed from government schools, and the services of NSQF teachers be regularised, similar to contractual employees in PSPCL.
Meanwhile, at the Mohali Circle office, Powercom employees under various unions — including the Technical Services Union (TSYU), Federation ATC, Association of Junior Engineers, Pensioner Association, and Pensioner Union — continued their collective leave strike, now extended till Aug 15.
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The agitation, which began on Aug 11, targets the Powercom management and Punjab government for failing to resolve long-pending issues.
Protesters demanded the repeal of privatisation policies, release of arrears for revised pay scales from Jan 1, 2016, clearance of pending dearness allowance, recruitment drives, regularisation of temporary workers, restoration of the old pension scheme, repeal of the Electricity Act 2022, and timely promotions for sub-station employees.
Ranjit Singh Dhillon, state president of the Association of Junior Engineers, warned that the agitation would intensify if the demands remained unmet.
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