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Tribune News Service
Bathinda, February 17
Members of the ETT-TET Pass Unemployed Teachers’ Union carried out a protest march against the state government and demanded permanent jobs. During the protest march, the protesters blocked the Bathinda-Mansa highway near Hanuman Chowk and raised slogans against the state government.
They gathered near Children Park and started the march around 1 pm. After passing Court Road, near the bus stand chowk, Mehna Chowk, Fire Brigade Chowk, Mall Road, the protesters holding placards reached Hanuman Chowk and blocked the Bathinda-Mansa highway.
As protesters blocked the chowk for around 25 minutes, there was complete traffic disruption causing a great inconvenience to commuters. Commuters were seen sitting inside their vehicles helplessly, some of whom entered streets or took to link roads along the highway. Some of the protesters even lay down on the road to prevent vehicles from passing.
They moved towards Finance Minister Manpreet Badal’s office near the Multipurpose Stadium where they were stopped by police personnel. After brief negotiations, the protesters agreed to call off the protest and submitted a memorandum of demands to the tehsildar.
Deepak Kamboj, president of the union, said, “There are more than 14,500 unemployed ETT-TET pass teachers and government must recruit them all. If the government does not fulfil our demands, we will intensify our struggle in future. We have already decided to conduct a protest in different districts and submit MoUs to all 13 MPs in the state.
After which we would conduct a state-level protest, the date for which will be announced soon. A few teachers have taken up jobs in private schools with salaries as low as Rs 3,000 per month while a majority of teachers are unemployed. There are posts lying vacant in hundreds of schools in the state, the government must fill these posts on priority.”
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