Kapurthala, September 25
In what could be termed as a scene from Bollywood film Sholay, as many as nine EGS (education guarantee scheme) teachers, including five women, climbed to the top of an about 400-foot high water tank and threatened to commit suicide by jumping from it if their demands were not met.

In a dramatic turn of events, the teachers climbed the Improvement Trust water tank located at Circular Road, here, around 3 pm, soon after the detainment of over 100 members of EGS Teachers Union Punjab.

Their demands include the immediate release of the detained teachers.

As soon as the news of the nine teachers climbing the water tank spread, a large number of citizens gathered there. SDM GS Khaira and SP (HQ) Charnajeet Kumar also reached on the spot and tried to persuade them to alight from the tank, but they were not ready to do so.

Meanwhile, the district administration also contacted the brigade commander of the Kapurthala military station to avoid any untoward incident. Several army personnel reached there and spread a net a few feet above the ground to avert any casualty in case the teachers jumped.

In the meantime, president of the Union Pritpal Singh along with other teachers, who were detained at Dhilwan police station, were released.

Pritpal’s talk with education minister Dr Upinderjeet Kaur, who was in Chandigarh, was arranged on the phone and she asked them to come to Chandigarh for talks on Wednesday.

Following this, Pritpal also climbed on the top of water tank and asked his colleagues to alight as the education minister had given them a positive assurance. At this, the nine teachers came down form the tank around 6 pm.

Earlier, over 100 teachers of different districts were detained when they were proceeding from Shalamar Bagh to education minister’s house for a dharna.

Pritpal Singh said Dr Upinderjeet Kaur had agreed during talks on August 2 to extend the tenure of 3,006 EGS centres for six more moths after March 31, 2008 but later, she had refused to do so. They were planning to stage a dharna in favour of the extension of the tenure of the EGS centres and their demand of providing regular jobs on priority to the EGS teachers who had been working on a meagre amount of just Rs 1,000 each for about five years.

The education minister could not be contacted despite repeated attempts to know her side of the story.

Meanwhile, an FIR of attempt to suicide under Sections 309 and 511 of the IPC has been registered against nine teachers, said SSP Rakesh Aggarwal. He said several teachers had also been booked under various Sections of the IPC and CrPC.