As many as 180 teachers from Punjab staged a protest outside Congress party president Sonia Gandhi's residence here on Wednesday over the pay scale issue.
According to the Elementary Teacher Training (ETT) teachers, over 4,000 were recruited by the Punjab government in 2016 and after the completion of five years of service, the salaries of 180 teachers were deducted by 50 per cent.
Kamal Thakur, President of the ETT Teachers Association, said, "We have completed five years of regular service. The state government has reduced the salary of 180 teachers to half. Now we are unable to pay the loan. Demanding the restoration of our pay scale, we came to meet Sonia Gandhi. We could not meet her, but told our grievance to Pawan Bansal."
The protesting teachers also alleged that the education department forced them to sign a document mentioning that they are resigning from service.
"We were forced to sign a document, in which it was said that we are resigning from service, and we will not approach the court. Those who refused to sign the document had to face a salary cut," he said.
Thakur said, "Usually Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi does not meet anyone. However, we met him a few days ago, he asked to approach Pargat Singh, who is the education minister."
He also added, "We are protesting for our children. If they don't pay us our due salaries, then how will make our ends meet, we will not be pay our children school children, home loan, eventually leading to the eviction from our house."
We request Sonia Gandhi to either accept our demand or tell the policemen to shoot us, he said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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