Ludhiana, August 4, 2022 (Raj Kumar Sharma)
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today demanded that all vacant posts in the Agriculture and Horticulture departments be filled immediately and said the party would also approach the Punjab Governor to demand justice for agitating Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) students.
The SAD President visited the ‘dharna’ site at the PAU campus here to express solidarity with agitating students and assured them that besides meeting the Governor the SAD would raise the issue publically also. “If need be we will gherao the chief minister, but will not allow you to suffer”, he told the students who welcomed the bold step taken by the SAD.
Expressing shock at the callousness of the AAP government which was not filling more than 1,000 vacant posts in the Agriculture and Horticulture departments, Mr Sukhbir Badal said “Punjab needs young agriculture technocrats. Our cotton crop has been failing continuously for the last three years. Horticulturists are uprooting Kinnow orchards. We need fresh blood in the field to ensure farmers are provided adequate extension services. It is shameful that PAU students have been protesting here for nearly ten days but the AAP government is impervious to their plight”.
Mr Badal also highlighted how no recruitment had taken place in the University after the SAD led government relinquished charge. He said the AAP government should have filled the vacant posts on a priority basis instead of forcing students to pull rickshaws and clean vehicles to focus attention on their misery. He also spoke on how the SAD led government had given two lakh government jobs to youth during its tenure.
Agitating students told Mr Badal that the chief minister had visited PAU recently but had refused to meet them or take their memorandum. They briefed the SAD president that 410 posts of Agriculture Development Officer (ADO), 350 of Agriculture Sub Inspector, 125 of Horticulture Development officer, 129 of Soil Conservation Officer and 56 of Market Secretary were currently lying vacant.
In another major development, the students brought it to the notice of the SAD president that the nature of PAU had been changed in recent years with an influx of outsiders and that the situation was such that outsiders dominated in the University with 80 per cent of all new recruitments being non-Punjabis. They said this had closed the gates for Punjabis to get recruited in their own University. The agitating students demanded that all vacant posts be filled and that a roster system be created to fill all vacant posts by March 31 of the concerned financial year.
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