Employees at Shaheed Bhagat Singh State Technical University are on a prolonged strike, with no pay in eight months
More than 250 teaching and non-teaching staff members at Shaheed Bhagat Singh State Technical University have gone on a pen-down strike in protest of the excessive delay in the payment of their salary. These employees haven’t gotten their pay in eight months, despite several protests.
According to Kulbhushan Agnihotri, president of the Teachers’ Association, they have been pleading with the administration to pay their wages, but all of their requests have been ignored.
“Kultar Singh Sandhwan, the speaker of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, visited the institution recently and promised to inform the relevant authorities about the situation. We had previously spoken with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as well, but other than empty promises, nothing has changed, and we haven’t received our paychecks in eight months,” Agnihotri said.
The AAP administration had originally promised to provide the institution with Rs 30 crore per year, but Gurpreet Singh, head of the Staff Welfare Association, stated that the amount has now been cut to Rs 15 crore. “We have only received Rs 11 crore of these Rs 15 crore in this financial year,” he added, noting that the institution also had other costs to pay. Gurpreet said, “We want to ask the government how one can run his house without getting salaries.”
Under the joint action committee’s flag, the staff members staged a protest march and took a dharna in front of the university gate.
It’s interesting to note that since the university’s founding in 2021, no permanent VC has been appointed here.
The first-year student of electrical engineering from Arif Ke Village, Sukhwinder Singh, expressed uncertainty over the duration of the current dharna. Our research will undoubtedly be impacted by this strike, he added, adding that these are significant days.
