Teachers hold march at 8 villages

Sumeer Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 16

Members of the Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha took out a protest march at eight villages in the district to express resentment over the issues of regularisation of jobs and the transfer policy adopted by the Education Department.

The protesters, a majority of them women teachers, gathered near Bhucho Mandi and then moved to different villages, raising slogans against the State Education Department and government for allegedly adopting ‘anti-employee policies’.

Women members of the BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) extended their support to the morcha by participating in the protest.

The protesters said they were reaching out to parents of students studying in government schools, farmers and the common man living in villages to extend their full support to their cause.

The protesters covered Bhucho Khurd, Chak Fateh Singh Wala, Chak Ram Singh Wala, Chak Bakhtu, Ballianwali, Bhunder and Mehraj villages.

Jaswinder Singh, executive member of the district committee of the Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha, said, “We have been carrying out protest march at different villages and asking residents to extend their support to us in these testing times. Various farmer unions and members of other unions have extended their support to us.”

“On November 18, we will carry out a massive protest in front of the mini-secretariat where members of the teachers’ union and farmer unions from other districts of the Malwa region would join us. This protest is our way of retaliation against the state government that called off the state-level meeting with Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on November 5,” added Singh.

Resham Singh, president of the Democratic Teachers’ Front, said, “We are getting support from parents and panchayats. We have given a call for protest outside the mini-secretariat on Sunday, where members of farm unions and parents will join us. We will also gherao Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal’s office.”

“Our primary demands are the cancellation of transfer orders and regularisation of jobs of 5,178 master cadre and SSA/RMSA teachers without any pay cut,” he added.