Physical education teachers protest, demand jobs

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 23

Members of the unemployed PTI, BPED, MPED Teachers Union, Punjab, on Sunday held a protest outside the residence of School Education Minister OP Soni, against the government’s alleged failure to give them jobs. The protesters raised slogans against the minister and the state government.

Keshav Kohli, president of the union, said, “For the last 12 years, these teachers are struggling to get jobs. They had filled application forms for the job four times in these years. Many of them had also paid Rs 700 but to no avail. The government did not begin the recruitment process even after conducting the written test.”

“It is strange that the government wants to promote sports in schools but thousands of schools are being run without physical education teachers. Even Khelo Punjab has not being able to bring desired results due to the attitude of the state government,” he added.

The union had written letters to Education Secretary Krishan Kumar several times but to no avail. President of the PTI union, Ashok Kumar, joined the protest by reaching from Fazilka. He said the union urged the government to fill these posts at the earliest. If our demands were not accepted the union would hold a massive demonstration and gherao the office of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on October 24.”

The union members met OP Soni and handed over a memorandum of their demands. The minister informed the delegation that he would take up the matter with the authorities concerned on October 28.

Jagmohan Singh, Kamaldeep Singh Rinki, Rajiv Sharma, Sandip Singh Sunny and Sanjeev Kumar were among the prominent present.