New Delhi [India]: Teachers from Punjab staged a protest outside Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s residence in Delhi over the pay scale issue. The protest was called off after Rahul Gandhi’s representative Harshvardhan met the protestors and assured them that their demands will be met and sought a time for three days. Speaking to ANI, Kamal Thakur, president, ETT TET Pass Union said, “Rahul Gandhi’s representative Harshvardhan came to meet us and mentioned that he has already spoken to Punjab Education Minister Pargat Singh and Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal. We have been told that our demands will be met in the next 2-3 days. I also spoke about the code of conduct that can be implemented anytime in Punjab and our demands should not just be mere words. He had assured us and said he has come on behalf of Rahul Gandhi. He had promised justice will be served to us.”
Thakur said he has faith in Rahul Gandhi that he will give 180 teachers their rights. “If our demands are not met, all the ETT teachers will gather here. We have come here with Gandhi’s ideology, with a flower in hand. We did not even raise any kind of slogan against the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi or the Delhi administration because we have come here with hope and now we will see how much Rahul Gandhi can live up to the trust of 180 people. If our work is not done in the next three days, then on the fourth day, you will be seeing all of us here again. We are right now calling off our protest,” Thakur said. About 180 regular ETT teachers out of 4,500 ETT teachers recruited in 2016 by the Punjab government and are forced to accept Central Pay Scale after regular services of complete five years.
