LAHORE: Representatives of Mutahidda Mahaz Punjab will be meeting here on Wednesday (today) to finalise a protest campaign against the `indifferent attitude of bureaucracy` towards their demands.

`Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had over a year ago approved a summary to regularise the services of contract-based teachers and a notification was also issued that was not implemented yet,` Mahaz central secretary general Kashif Shahzad said here on Tuesday.

He said some 3,000 posts of teachers from BS-17 to BS-20 had been lying vacant for the last oneand-a-half years. However, the high-ups of the education departments were not holding the meetingtoconsideranddecide the overdue promotion cases of teachers.`Posts of headmasters in some 1,300 schools are also lying vacant while implementation on the pay and promotion package for another 13,000 teachers is also being delayed.

These circumstances have created unrest among the teachers community and they are now left with no option but to protest on roads,` he said.

TEVTA: The Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) will set up an institute on the Ravi Campus of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) at Pattoki.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish the Government Technical Training Centre (GT T C) was signed between Tevta and UVAS here on Tuesday.

Under the MoU, the UVAS will provide building for the institute on its Ravi Campus while Tevtawould arrange curricula of courses, machinery and equipment for training, faculty, examination and certification through the Trade Testing Board (TTB) and the Punjab Board of Technical Education (PBT E).

At the GTTC, short courses on poultry industry, namely handyman (multi-skills), rural poultry, electrician, plumbing and sanitary installer, RAC technician and generator mechanics, would be offered to the students of the UVAS, the general public and nominees of the Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA).

The MoU was signed by Tevta General Manager Hamid Ghani Anjum, UVAS Pattoki Campus Dean Dr Muhammad Akram and PPA Chairman (North Zone) Dr Mustafa Kamal.

Speaking on the occasion, Tevta Chairperson Irfan Qaiser Shaikh said the joint venture wouldincrease employment opportunities for the graduates with better wages through capacity-building in multi-skills enabling them to compete at local and international level.

He said for the development, notification and approval of curricula for the course of multi-skills, the PPA and UVAS would send consultants or technical experts to Tevta to identify the skills competencies to be included in the course, considering the industry requirements and Tevta resources.

UVAS Vice-Chancellor Dr Talat Naseer Pasha said poultry farms had beenfacing shortage ofskilled manpower equipped with the right set of technical skills and professional knowledge.

PPA former chairman and Big Bird Group Chief Executive Abdul Basit and PPA Chairman (North Zone) Dr Mustafa Kamal also spoke.