Protesting JBT aspirants write letters to PM, Khattar

THEY HAD EARLIER ENDED THEIR PROTEST IN KARNAL IN JULY AFTER GETTING AN ASSURANCE FROM HARYANA GOVERNMENT

KARNAL: Protesting over the delay in issuing appointment letters to them, aspiring junior basic training (JBT) teachers on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in blood to seek their intervention.

The aspiring teachers’ union collected blood of protesters in a syringe and wrote letters with it to the PM and the CM, demanding appointment letters at the earliest. They had earlier ended their month-long protest in Karnal in July after getting an assurance from the Haryana government that they will be issued joining letters by August 15. The protesting teachers said the state government has failed to keep its promise, so they have to resume the agitation.

The teachers are using all tac- tics to grab the attention and recently they protested by putting a rope in their neck like a noose, and also started an indef- inite hunger strike.

More than 1,200 aspiring JBT teachers were left out after the Punjab and Haryana high court had directed the state government to prepare a combined merit list of eligible candidates who had cleared the Haryana Teacher Eligibility Test (HTET) in 2011 and 2013 and appointed 9,455 candidates.

“We resumed the protest as the government has failed to keep its promise. Additional director, state elementary education, Virender Dahiya had assured us that we will get joining letters by August 15,” said a protester Sarvpreet Sandhu.

However, on July 27, Dahiya visited Karnal and appealed them to end the protest, saying that department has enough vacancies to accommodate 1,010 candidates as 963 candidates from the previous list had not joined and 85 were to join later.