Punjab: Student organization supports protesting professors

Punjab: The protest launched by activists of the Guest Faculty United Front gained momentum when students of government colleges announced their decision to support the demands raised by guest assistant professors after the state government’s move to appoint 1,158 lecturers and librarians in compliance with a court order. Office bearers and activists of various units of the Progressive Students Union, led by Malerkotla president Kamaldeep Kaur, announced that they would support their teachers and guides who have supported college education for years on meagre salaries. “Like our protesting assistant professors, we too have no objection to the appointment of regular staff. However, we demand that the government also takes into account the interests of guest faculty,” Kamal Kaur said.

Earlier, activists of the Guest Faculty United Front, led by Sukhchain Singh and Preetpal Kaushik, had threatened to intensify the agitation in case the Punjab government tried to ruin their lives. Speakers including Sukhchain Singh, Preetpal Kaushik, Paramjit Singh and Mary Nachal alleged that like previous governments, the AAP government too has failed to recognise the efforts made by assistant professors (guest faculty) who were strengthening the higher education system by working on meagre salaries. “While we were eligible for many more jobs paying us remuneration, we chose to work as nation builders by working on arbitrary conditions laid down by the government with the hope of getting regularised.

Now, when most of us have become ineligible to apply for government jobs, the government is hell-bent on ruining our families by shutting down the upcoming system,” Kaushik said. The speakers lamented that the AAP leaders including the CM, assembly speaker and education minister have forgotten the promises made to the guest faculty assistant professors when the then chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi had attempted to appoint 1,091 assistant professors and 67 librarians without following the standard procedure of recruitment. Reiterating their earlier stand that they had no objection to the 1,158 professors joining in the normal way pursuant to the court orders, the protesting assistant professors demanded that their services should also be regularised.