Cabinet nod to policy for regularising teachers’ jobs

Chandigarh: The Punjab cabinet on Monday approved a policy for regularising services of ad hoc, contractual, and temporary teachers by placing them in a special cadre, which would benefit more than 9,000 employees of the education department, who have completed 10 years of service. They will, however, be treated as a fresh appointee.
With this, the state government has taken a policy decision to continue such desirous suitable teachers, who fulfil the eligibility conditions, in service till the age of 58 years. The policy has been framed only in relation to Group C & Group D posts of the education department.
The contractual employees of other departments, including health and transport, too would be regularised next and the state government plans to bring separate policies for each set of employees.
Finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema told TOI after the meeting that the report of the three-member cabinet sub-committee on the regularisation issue was placed before the cabinet. The services of the temporary employees would be regularised department-wise and in a phased manner by the state government, beginning with 8,736 teachers.
With two Bills for regularisation of the employees — passed by the legislative assembly in 2016 and 2021 — awaiting the Punjab governor’s nod, the state government has now formulated a policy for welfare of ad hoc, contractual, and temporary teachers and other employees in the education department under Article 162 read with entry 41 of list-II of the Seventh Schedule of Constitution of India.
In all, the AAP leadership had promised to regularise the services of 36,000 employees as part of its pre-poll promises. But the panel headed by Cheema had to look into the legal aspects of the proposal and eventually it was decided to take the policy route by creating a special cadre.
An official said the move would help protect the interest of the contractual employees to ensure that such employees do not suffer from uncertainty and harassment and to grant them a security of tenure. Till now, various appointments to Group C and Group D level posts in government had been made on contract or temporary basis and some of such employees have now put in a period of more than 10 years and had given their prime years of life in service of the state. The cabinet was of the view that now at this stage, to relieve these employees would be unjustified and improper.
For regularisation of services an employee should have worked on ad hoc, contractual, or temporary basis for a continuous period of minimum 10 years till the issuance of present policy and must have possessed the requisite qualifications and experience for the post in terms of rules, if any, at the time of placement in the special cadre. The work and conduct of the applicant must have remained satisfactory as per the assessment of the department during the period of 10 years’ service, said the spokesperson.