Teachers protest, demand release of their colleagues

BATHINDA: Members of the BEd TET-Qualified Teachers’ Union on Sunday staged a protest in front of Finance Minister Manpreet Badal’s office, demanding the release of teachers who were arrested by the police during a protest near Kharar in Mohali recently.

Members of the B.Ed TET-Qualified Teachers’ Union being restrained by police personnel in Bathinda on Sunday. Vijay Kumar

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 8

Members of the BEd TET-Qualified Teachers’ Union on Sunday staged a protest in front of Finance Minister Manpreet Badal’s office, demanding the release of teachers who were arrested by the police during a protest near Kharar in Mohali recently.

A high drama was witnessed when the protesters started their march from Teachers’ Home to the Finance Minister’s office near the Multipurpose Sports Stadium. The protesters were going to burn an effigy of the state Education Minister in front of the Finance Minister’s office, but were stopped midway by police personnel. As a result, the protesters got infuriated and resorted to heavy sloganeering against the state government and the police.

Later, when the protesters tried to burn an effigy, the police personnel deployed on duty allegedly snatched it from them forcefully, making them angry. To control the situation, the police personnel returned the effigy to the irate protesters who then burnt it and raised slogans against the state government.

Yudhjit Singh, president of the union, said, “Unemployed BEd teachers who were protesting for regular jobs were arrested by the police in Kharar recently. We demand that the teachers who were arrested must be released without any condition.”

BEd-TET union members seek release of teachers

Tajinder Manwala, district committee member, said, “Such an approach of the state government is deplorable. On the one hand, it launches schemes like “ghar ghar rozgar”, but on the other, it is suppressing the genuine demand of regular employment for qualified teachers.” He said launching a protest to seek employment was a democratic right.

The executive members of the union said during the protest by teachers in Sangrur on August 11, state Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla had assured them of finding a solution to all the issues faced by teachers. But till now, there were taken no concrete steps by the government to begin the process of hiring teachers.

“There is a meeting going to be held on September 10 and if nothing substantial comes out of it, members of farm unions, mazdoor unions, student unions would launch a massive agitation at the Education Minister’s town in Sangrur on September 15,” warned the union members.