85 days on, unemployed teacher continues protest atop mobile tower

Patiala, June 12

An ETT/TET pass jobless teacher has been protesting atop a mobile tower for the last 85 days while braving extreme weather conditions. He called Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s ‘Ghar Ghar Rozegar’ a ‘Jumla’ . The teacher, Surinder Pal, from Gurdaspur, said despite him and many others being qualified the state government couldn’t provide jobs to them.

Talking to The Tribune over the phone, Pal said, ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgar’ campaign was Chief Minister’s ‘jumla’. Many like him, who had already cleared the TET examination, were without jobs, he added.

Notably, the ETT/TET pass teachers have been protesting for a long time. They were cane charged many times whenever they tried to march towards the CM’s residence. Besides, ETT/TET pass teachers also jumped into Bhakra Canal to make their voice heard.

Surinder Pal, whose health deteriorated, alleged that the Chief Minister had turned a blind eye towards the plight of jobless teachers in his own home town on purpose.

Sandeep Sama, state leader, ETT/TET Pass Unemployed Teachers Union, said the government had promised to give 16 lakh jobs, which meant employment for 123 persons in each village of Punjab. However, villagers had already exposed false claims of the government, he added. “All job figures presented by the CM are turning out to be ‘jumlas’. We have already started awareness drives in villages to expose lies of the state government,” he said.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the teachers union and Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla was held at the Circuit House here yesterday. After meeting the teachers union said the Education Minister had agreed to some of their demands. However, the Minister failed to give any written assurance in this regard, the teachers’ union added.—TNS