Kapurthala Diary: When teachers take up the cudgels

On a call given by the Sanjha Teacher Morcha, Punjab, the Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) held a demonstration and burnt an effigy of the Education Secretary, Punjab, at Shalimar Bagh, here on Friday. While raising the slogans, teachers ‘Change secretary, save education’. District heads of the front, including Jaimal Singh, Tajinder Singh, Balwinder Bhandal, Pawan Kumar, Malkit Singh and Jaswinder Singh, said, “The new government has taken ‘anti-teacher decisions’. Demands of teachers should be immediately fulfilled through a high-level inquiry.” They also condemned ‘ruthless policies of the Education Secretary’. The Education Secretary had done nothing to fill vacant posts of teacher in the government schools, they added. Protesters demanded that pending promotions of the centre head teacher, head teacher and master cadre for every category must be done at the earliest. They blamed the Education Secretary for creating an atmosphere of panic among teachers and not resolving various departmental problems. Leaders warned the Education Department against alleged victimisation of Jaswinder Singh Aulakh, a leader of the Sanjha Teacher Morcha and the state head of the Teachers’ Dal (Jawaanda). Balvir Singh, Gurdeep Dhamma, Surinderpal Singh, Rohit Sharma, Parminderjit Singh, Vinay Dabwali, Damanjit Singh and Naresh were present on the occasion.

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Farmers get agri tips

Under the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) Scheme, Sushil Kumar, Chief Agricultual Officer, a farmer-scientist interaction was organised at the Chief Agriculture Officer’s office in Kapurthala, where issues, regarding watering of crops; use of fertilisers, insecticides and manures in crops as per recomendations; and effective use of crop residue were discussed. From Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Dr Pradeep Kumar, Amit Salaria, Dr Gobinder Singh and Dr Bindu Marwaha apprised farmers of various issues. Agricultural officer Dr Ashwini Kumar said the farmer schemes being run by the department, such as ATMA, RKY and the National Food Security Mission should be used as much as possible. Agricultural Information Officer Dr Sukhev Singh asked farmers not to sprinkle banned toxic concoctions over Basmati and use manures as per leaf colour chart. Dr Gurdeep Singh Agricutural officer Block Nadala said stubble should not be burnt; it should be rather mixed into the soil. Dr GS Bedi, Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry, talked about diseases affecting animals, their vaccination and proper upkeep of animals. Daljit Singh, Fisheries Officer, also talked about various schemes.

A Torch March

Under the banner of the Indian Railways Employees’ Federation (IREF), a huge march was taken out from worker club of RCF to RCF Colony, as a part of ‘Jan Jagran Abhiyan’, which has been going on from September 19. Members of the union have been up in arms against the National Monetisation Pipeline scheme, indiscriminate contracting and outsourcing in railways, privatisation of railways, changing 44 labour laws into four codes, snatching rights of workers, employees rights, rising unemployment and inflation. To create awareness a torch march was taken out against the wrong policies of the Centre and Indian Railways. Sarvjit Singh, general secretary, Indian Railways Employees’ Federation and RCF Employees’ Union, said the Central Government launched attack to privatise 13 departments, including Railways through the National Monetisation Pipeline scheme. He said many countries of the world have been forced to nationalise railways after poor results of privatisation, but in our country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, is walking on the path of indiscriminate privatisation. Bachitar Singh, vice-president, RCFEU, said one should learn from the farmers’ movement in the country. He said we should unite and challenge the policies of the Central Government.