Harsh appeals CM to settle issues of contractual lecturers

Panthers Party Chairman, Harsh Dev Singh addressing press conference at Jammu on Sunday.
Panthers Party Chairman, Harsh Dev Singh addressing press conference at Jammu on Sunday.

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 23: Peeved over the callous attitude of the State Government towards the miserable plight of the plus two contractual lecturers who had been observing chain hunger strike for the last 69 days, former minister Harsh Dev Singh lambasted the dispensation for making a mockery of the tall ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ slogan bugled by the Saffron brigade. He was addressing a press conference in Jammu today.
Expressing anguish over the aggrieved lecturers being made to languish in the scorching heat, Harsh Dev Singh accused the State Government of compelling the protesters to come on the roads to draw its attention towards their miseries. He said that the continuous protests by the highly qualified lecturers have only brought disgrace to the dispensation.
Perturbed over the trauma faced by the plus two contractual lecturers, Singh lambasted the Education Minister for his egregious remarks couple of weeks ago, on the fate of several such contractual lecturers who had given several valuable years of their life to the education department and were ruthlessly terminated by the Government after taking their services for more than a decade. He warned the BJP-PDP combine of serious consequences if anything untoward happened to the aggrieved protesters.
Expressing solidarity with the lecturers, he said that the teaching fraternity had been rendering their services with zeal and honesty in schools on paltry salary with a hope that they would be regularized to earn with dignity and honour. “The selfish interests of the MLAs and the Ministers, incentives and jobs for the subversives and criminals in Kashmir and bouquet of biases for the educated youth  showcased the fact that the State Government was appeasing the secessionists for the purpose of  running the regime which was out rightly rejected by the people at large”, Harsh added. The former Education Minister reiterated his demand of regularization for all such highly qualified lecturers who had been despicably ostracized after having rendered their services to the department for five years and more by the BJP partnered Government and pledged to fight until they were ensured rights with dignity and honour. He urged the Chief Minister to settle the issues of contractual lecturers to standby the truth that the actual place of teachers was in the classrooms and not under the roadside tents.
Gagan Pratap Singh general secretary Young Panthers and Parshotam Parihar State Secretary PTU were also present during the press conference.