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Tribune News Service
Bathinda, January 22
Members of the Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha on Tuesday staged a protest and burnt an effigy of the state Education Minister. They were protesting the termination orders of five teachers.
The protesters carried out a protest march from the district administrative complex to the city bus stand and raised slogans against the state government for not fulfilling their long pending demands. The protesters also burnt an effigy of Education Minister OP Soni, the state government and the state Education Secretary and blocked the Bathinda-Mansa highway for around 15 minutes.
Kulwinder Singh, president of the Master Cadre Union, said, “We strongly oppose the recent decision of the Education Department to terminate five teachers of SSA/RMSA. Such decisions by the Education Department suppress the voice of dissent raised by teachers. The state government has been ignoring the genuine demands of teachers, but we will not stop until the government relent and fulfil our demands.”
Kulwinder Singh added, “We demand that the termination decision should be revoked at the earliest otherwise we would be forced to intensify our struggle in the coming days. Moreover, we also demand the regularisation of teachers recruited under 5178 master cadre, regularisation of SSA/RMSA teachers without pay-cuts, regularisation of teachers working on contract and merging of computer teachers in the Education Department. We will not allow the state government to privatise the Education Department/services. A state-wide protest would be conducted against Education Minister OP Soni on January 27.”
Meanwhile, commuters on the highway had to face a lot of inconvenience the protesters blocked the road. Commuters were seen sitting inside their vehicles helplessly. They said blocking roads to lodge a protest has become common these days. On every alternate day, there is one protest over one problem/demand or the other but it is the city residents who have to bear the brunt of these protests.
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