STATE TIMES NEWS JAMMU: A large number of members of J&K United School Teachers Association (USTA) gathered at Press Club Jammu on Thursday under the leadership of Rajeev Kumar its President and held protest to focus on long pending demands of teachers and non teaching staff over which the authorities have adopted a lackadaisical approach. They were addressed among others by Hari Singh, General Secretary, Yunus Rahi, Senior Vice President, Pradeep Singh, Sunil Kumar, Roop Chand, Kanta Devi, Angad Singh, Ganesh Dutt, Anju Saini , Zulifkar, Sandesh Kumar and Bashir Ahmed. Addressing the gathering Hari Singh strongly castigated the center and UT government for inflicting innumerable economic hardships with steep hike in the price of diesel, gas and other essential commodities which have broken the backbone of working class. He stressed upon the central government to release DA with 18 months arrears with effect from January 2020, restore old pension scheme and spend 6 per cent of GDP on education,. He appealed the authorities to spare the teachers from all type of non academic duties and engage them in teaching learning process which already had badly affected during COVID pandemic. Other demands raised includes adjust newly promoted lecturers, regularize all incharge lecturers, headmasters etc, fill all vacancies in education department, stop contractual and regularize all contractual lecturers ad ReTs from the date they are working, hold DPC after every 6 months for all cadres in education department, bring employees working in rural areas under 16 per cent HRA, enhance medical allowance from Rs 300 to Rs 2000. USTA appealed the authorities to concede the demands at an earliest otherwise organization will be compelled and spearhead the agitation in near future.
