Excelsior Correspondent
SAMBA, Dec 14: A strong protest and candle march was organised by the teaching community of district Samba at Vijaypur in which hundreds of the teachers of the district participated.
The protest and candle march was led by Ganesh Khajuria along with the Central Executive Body and the district body of JKTF Samba.
The teachers marched through the main bazars of Vijaypur town by holding candles in their hands and raising slogans against the delaying policy of the higher authorities of School Education Department of J&K who have miserably failed to mitigate the just and genuine demands of all the cadres of teaching fraternity which are lying pending since a long.
While interacting with the media and addressing the gathering, Ganesh Khajuria lambasted the authorities of School Education Department for playing with the career of the teachers by not mitigating and addressing the legitimate issues of all the cadre.
The main demands being raised during the demonstration included, promotion of teachers to the Master Grade, implementation of ATD-2022 of teachers and masters after removing all the loopholes and discrepancies existing in the present proposed ATD list, implementation of old pension scheme instead of the NPS in favour of the employees appointed w e.f. 01-01-2010, transfer policy in favour of the Grade-2 and Grade-3 teachers and their transition on the substantive posts, regularisation of all the in charge and Lookafter cadres, adjustment of all the promoted lecturers and headmasters.
Prominent among others who participated in the protest and candle March included, Surat Singh Toofani (UT vice president) of the Forum, Dharshan Sharma (State secretary), Gopal Singh (advisor), Ravinder Singh (press secretary), Rajeshwar Singh (district president Samba), and many others.