The ongoing protest by 1158 Assistant Professors and Librarians under their Front entered its 10th day today in front of the Director of Higher Education’s office. Braving bone-chilling cold, the protesters have been staging a day-and-night sit-in on the department’s seventh floor, impacting official work. Despite this, the Punjab government and officials remain unmoved. Today, the protesters raised slogans against the government and announced plans for a secret action on Republic Day.

Front leaders Paramjit Singh and Pritpal Singh stated that the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s double bench had given the green light for the recruitment of 1158 Assistant Professors and Librarians on September 23, 2024. However, the government has kept the recruitment process on hold for nearly four months instead of issuing appointment letters to 411 candidates, causing immense frustration among the affected youth.

They added that, through continuous struggle, results for 313 candidates in subjects like English, Punjabi, Hindi, Library Science, and Education have been declared, but the results for other candidates are still pending. Furthermore, the process of inviting candidates for vacant positions is yet to begin.

Jaspreet Kaur mentioned that a delegation met with Education Minister Harjot Bains recently, who assured them that the appointment process would begin on Monday. However, this assurance turned out to be false. Balwinder Chahal warned that this recruitment issue has now become a matter of life and death. If the Punjab government fails to complete the recruitment process as promised, the protest will escalate from Monday, and the government will be held responsible for any ensuing situation.

Paramjit Singh further revealed that a panel meeting was held today with DGSE Vinay Bublani, Sagar Sethia, and other Education Department officials. The Front was assured that appointment notifications for colleges would be issued by this evening and that candidates would receive their appointment letters and stations by January 27. However, as of the time of reporting, no such notification had been received by the Front leaders.