Panel protests lathicharge on teachers

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 12

On a call given by the Joint Adhiyapak Sangharsh Committee, Punjab, teachers from the Bathinda, Goniana and Sangat blocks on Tuesday staged a protest and burnt an effigy of the state government outside the bus stand here. They were protesting against the lathicharge on the agitating teachers in Patiala a few days ago.

After school, teachers instead of going to houses gathered at Teachers’ Home and from where they took out a protest march towards the bus stand, where they blocked the road and burnt an effigy of the state government.

Teacher union leaders said teachers across the state had been staging a protest on roads against a heavy cut in their salaries and demanding the regularisation of the services of contract teachers, but the state government had failed to do anything to resolve the problems of the agitating teachers as their demands fell on deaf ears.

They alleged that in the last 10 months, the state government had been running away from its promises and despite the fact that a large number of teachers had been on roads, it was not ready to accept their demands and was trying to suppress their protest by using police force and water cannons.

Retd teachers support

The executive committee of the DAV Colleges Retired Teachers' Association, Punjab, at its meeting held here on Tuesday condemned the brutal lathi charge on the protesting teachers in Patiala on Sunday which left many teachers and policemen injured.

In a joint press statement, Prof Rajnish Kumar and Prof Satish Tandon, president and general secretary, respectively, of the association, termed the attack on male and female teachers as inhuman and undemocratic.

"The genuine demands of these teachers should be immediately redressed by the authorities concerned," they demanded.

Press secretary Prof NK Gosain appealed to the Chief Minister to personally intervene in the matter and ensure that justice was delivered to the agitating teachers. Prof Gosain urged the state government to regularise their services at the earliest without reducing their salaries. "Confrontation does not lead to a solution to any problem," he added.

Muktsar teachers burn govt's effigies

Muktsar: A large number of teachers on Tuesday burnt effigies of the state government at various places in the district. They were protesting against the police lathicharge on the agitating teachers in Patiala on February 10. The teachers said the ruling dispensation (Congress) in the state would have to face the consequences in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

They further said on the one hand, the state government was not even paying the actual salaries to teachers, on the other, it was cane-charging and using water cannons against them.

Some employees unions and farmers unions too came out in support of the teachers. The protest was held at Malout, Muktsar, Gidderbaha and Doda village in the district.