SSA union leader detained for 3 hrs ahead of CM’s visit

Jalandhar, March 20

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Ahead of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s visit to the city today, a leader of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)/Mid-Day Meal Office Employees Union was detained for nearly three hours. A cop accompanied him to his duty at his office for the remaining day.

Shobit Bhagat, the union leader, had organised a number of protests against the state government recently. He was detained at his residence in Jalandhar by the police.

The union had been demanding that the state government regularise employees. Expressing surprise at the development, Bhagat said unlike earlier, the union had planned no protest today or in the coming days.

Bhagat said, “I was detained as part of a delegation twice that includes before the CM’s visit to Sports College in Jalandhar and during our union members’ visit to Nawanshahr. On both these occasions, we wanted to meet the CM. No protest was planned for today. Cops came to my house at 8 am and detained me till 11 am. On my insistence that I had a lot of work pending at the office, one of the cops accompanied me to the Department of School Education (Primary) where I work. It was at 4 pm that I was allowed to go.”

He said, “I was not even aware that the CM would be in the city today.”