Climbing towers the in thing!

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, April 26

A Bhiwani resident climbed a mobile tower in Sector 5 this evening. He was among hundreds of protesters resenting the non-recruitment of 2,520 teachers who had cleared the Haryana Teacher’s Eligibility Test in 2013. Thirty-year-old Mohit Kumar stayed atop the tower for around two hours.

At Shiksha Sadan, they raised slogans against the authorities. Women voiced anger by removing their dupattas. In the meantime, Mohit decided to climb the mobile tower and the authorities, along with the police, reached the spot to bring him down. Mohit’s father tried to climb the tower to bring him down, but the former threatened to jump. A fire brigade had to be pressed into service to bring Mohit down.

On April 20, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had ruled in the favour of teachers asking the government to prepare their recruitment orders at the earliest. However, the protesters claimed that the new list included only the candidates who had cleared the exam in 2011, and not the ones clearing it in 2013, forcing them to protest outside the Education Department’s head office in Sector 5.

In the afternoon, they had protested outside the CM’s residence in Chandigarh and Additional Chief Secretary, Education Department, PK Das assured them that they would soon be recruited.

But the assurance could not pacify the protesters. A large number of police officials, including ACP Mukesh Malhotra and SHO of the Sector 5 police station Lalit Kumar, reached the spot and tried to convince the youth to come down. Kumar said the man seemed mentally unstable and was being counselled.