Contractual teachers of Punjab stages massive protest in front of Secretary office

Contractual teachers of Punjab stages massive protest in front of Secretary office

Emotional lady teacher from Malout eats celphos tablets during the protest

Nabaz-e-Punjab, Mohali, June 16, 2021:
The non-permanent teachers from various districts of the state today staged a massive protest against the state government by blocking the main gate of Punjab School Education office’s building in Phase-8 here.
The main demands of the contractual teachers of primary schools were regularization of their jobs and enhancement in their salaries. They claimed that the current chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh had promised them in 2015, when they were protesting against the SAD government, that on forming the government, he would fulfill their demands at the earliest. The non-permanent teachers said that more than four years had passed since Capt Amarinder Singh had formed his government but they were still struggling for their same demands.
At around 12 pm, all the protesters gathered at Gurdwara Amb Sahib here. From there, they marched towards the building of the Education office, where a large number of police officials were already deployed. Over 200 non-permanent teachers blocked the main gate of the Education office and staged a dharna there. Meanwhile, around five men among the protesters reached the terrace of the Education bhawan’s building. They were having petrol-filled bottles in their hands and kept threatening the police that they would immolate themselves if their demands were not met. The five protesters kept standing at the terrace throughout the day.
The protesters raised strong slogans against the Education Secretary and Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh.
Lady teacher consumes celphos tablets:
During the protest, a lady teacher, identified as Rajvinder Kaur, a resident of Malout, consumed celphos tablets and attempted to kill herself. She was immediately rushed to a private hospital where she got her treatment. Interestingly, after around an hour, Rajvinderr Kaur returned to the ‘dharna’ site to re-join the protesters. After this incident, the protesters lost their temper and tried to enter inside the main gate of the Education bhawan. A clash between them and police took place and the cops had to lathi-charge to disperse the crowd. However, some of the protesters entered inside the building by jumping from the walls of the building. Popular Punjabi singer and youth leader of Aam Aadmi Party, Anmol Gagan Maan also reached the protest site in the evening to meet Rajvinder Kaur.
Various meetings with police officials and convenors of protesters – Gagandeep Kaur, Davinder Singh Sandhu and Ajmer Singh Aulakh took place during the protest. The senior police officials including SDM Jagdeep Saigal, SP (city) HS Virk, DSP Deep Kamal and DSP Gursher Singh Sandhu also remained present on this occasion. HS Virk tried to convince the protesters that he would fix their meeting with the Education Secretary and School Education Minister on Thursday at 11 am, but the protesters denied his proposal. They kept sticking to their demands that they would only meet the Education Secretary Krishan Kumar at the protest site on Wednesday.
Speaking on the occasion, Gagandeep Kaur said, “There are around 13,000 non-permanent teachers of primary schools in the state. All of them have been paid less than 10,000 for the last 18 years. This is shameful that the government is not paying heed towards us for the last two decades.”

In the evening, Captain Sandeep Sandhu, political adviser to chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, assured the protesters to meet them. After that, five convenors of the contractual teachers departed from Mohali to meet Sandeep Sandhu near Ludhiana. Ajmer Singh Aulakh at 9 pm told nabaz-e-punjab, “We are on the way to meet Sandeep Sandhu. Within a few minutes, we will have a meeting with him and we will put our demands before him. All other protesters are still sitting at the dharna in front of the Education secy office.”