Chandigarh: Demanding a pension scheme, revised salaries, and revocation of ban on recruitment, hundreds of teachers from over 160 professional colleges in Punjab and Chandigarh on Tuesday went on mass casual leave.

The teachers held a rally in Sector 25 here, at which they criticized the Punjab government for its failure to implement its own election manifesto promise of a pension and gratuity scheme for teachers of privately managed colleges across Punjab.

The call for the protest was given by the Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU).

Non-teaching employees of seven non-government colleges of Chandigarh also joined the rally.

PCCTU general secretary H.S. Walia said the Akali Dal government had failed to fulfil the promises made in the party's own election manifesto. Assurances on other demands of the teaching community had also not been fulfilled, he added.

"We have reminded Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal that he had moved a bill in the Punjab assembly March 30, 1999, to amend the Security of Service Act (1974) to grant pension-gratuity scheme to employees of non-government colleges, which was unanimously adopted by the assembly and was notified in the official gazette on April 26, 1999," said PCCTU president Jagwant Singh.

"Under the act, a scheme was approved by his cabinet in December 2001 which later on could not be implemented due to announcement of elections. Since, it is an unimplemented decision of his cabinet and promise made in his party's poll manifesto, he should take immediate steps for its implementation," Jagwant Singh said.

He said that the ban on recruitment has played havoc with the college education system.

"Haryana lifted the ban five years ago. Punjab should lift the ban to save the higher education," he added. IANS