College Teachers observe pen down strike

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 20: Up in arms against alleged callous attitude of the UT administration over their long pending demands, the Government College Teachers across Jammu and Kashmir today observed a pen down strike and suspended work.
The pen down strike was observed under the banner of Jammu Kashmir College Teachers Association (JKCTA), led by its President Dr Rakesh Jasrotia, who had already served an ultimatum in this regard.
The protesting College Teachers are demanding restoration of advanced increments for higher qualifications, regular DPCs with monetary effect from the date of eligibility, immediate adoption of UGC Regulations-2018 without any further delay by issuing the required Statutory Order (SO) for the same, adoption of the provision of Study Leave to the College Teachers for the pursuit of higher qualifications as per UGC Regulations-2018.
From 23rd to 28th August, 2021, all the College Teachers will wear black ribbon on their arms as a mark of resentment against the apathetic attitude of the Government towards their genuine issues and from 30th August, 2021, they will boycott the NAAC process being carried out in the colleges.
This was announced by Dr Rakesh Jasrotia while addressing the protesting Teachers. He said despite representing the issues to Advisors to the Lt Governor, Financial Commissioner, Secretary HED and even to Lt Governor Manoj Sinha himself, the ground situation doesn’t seem to have changed at all in spite of the clear cut directions and minute of the meeting in this regard.
“There seems to be an administrative inertia that has set in as far as the genuine demands/issues of the college teachers are concerned,” he alleged and added that long neglect of the genuine issues of College Teachers in the UT of J&K has led to the development of resentment among them and now they are compelled to adopt agitational path.