Tribune News Service
Bathinda, December 5
Members of the TET Qualified Unemployed BEd Teachers’ Union carried out a protest march and burnt an effigy of the state government in the city on Thursday. The protesters have been staging demonstrations over their long-standing demands for the past several months.
The police had put up barricades near Finance Minister’s office but the enraged protesters removed them and reached outside FM’s office and started raising slogans there. Yudhjit Singh, president of the union, said: “When we cleared TET, the minimum percentage criterion was 50 and 45 per cent for students belonging to the general and reserved categories. Punjab Government has recently amended the fixed criteria. Now, the minimum percentage to apply for a government job is 55 per cent. This is against the Centre’s guidelines. The government’s apathetic attitude towards our long-standing demands is shameful.”
“There are approximately 30,000 posts of teacher lying vacant in government schools, following 52,000 new admissions this season. Why are we not getting jobs, despite fulfilling all eligibilities. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had promised a government job to one member of every family in the state. But the government has failed to fulfill the promise made before elections,” he said.