Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 5: Expressing solidarity with striking SSA teachers, National Conference Provincial President Devender Singh Rana today urged the Governor’s Administration to look into their demand for earnest favourable consideration, as the previous PDP-BJP Government treated them shabbily and with callousness.
“It is a matter of concern for the society as a whole to see teachers protesting in streets and sitting on dharnas even on a day which is being observed as Teachers’ Day”, Rana said in a statement, adding that instead of rewarding and acknowledging their services and huge role in shaping the destiny of younger generations, they are forced to take recourse to agitational path.
He said teachers are to be given due regard and therefore it is incumbent upon the Government to open the channels of dialogue with the striking SSA teachers for ending the stalemate and saving the academic career of thousands of students, who are directly hit by the strikes.
He expressed distress over withholding the salaries of various segments of workers, especially SSA teachers and not bringing them under the ambit of 7th Pay Commission recommendations and hoped that uncertainty with regard to their service careers would end and they will be provided whatever is due to them so that they devote to their duties with missionary spirit.
Rana referred to the plight of SSA teachers, who are without their salaries months and said the insensitivity of the previous government has left over 40,000 families high and dry.