Aspiring teachers scuffle with cops
ALLEGE THAT A COP TRIED TO ‘STRANGULATE’ AN ASPIRING WOMAN TEACHER; COPS DENY CLAIMS OF SCUFFLE
SANGRUR Members of the ETT-TET Unemployed Teachers’ Union and the New PTI Teachers Union scuffled with the police on Sunday when they were stopped from marching to the residence of Punjab school education minister Vijay Inder Singla in Sangrur town.
The protesters raised slogans against the state government seeking jobs and alleged that a cop tried to ‘strangulate’ an aspiring woman teacher.
“I am still jobless despite having cleared the teachers’ eligibility test (TET) twice. We were holding a protest for jobs but a policeman tried to strangulate me when I was moving to the education minister’s residence,” said Ranjit Kaur of Sangrur.
Sangrur city police station in-charge Gurvir Singh denied the protesters’ allegations. “The police did not use any force but only stopped them from marching to the education minister’s residence. There was a scuffle when they crossed the barricades.”
Earlier, the aspiring teachers held a protest outside the district administration complex.
Sandeep Sama, senior vice president of the union, said the government announced only 2,364 posts of ETT teachers but the education department was considering BEd candidates for these vacancies.
The union leaders demanded that the 10,000 more vacancies of ETT teachers should be advertised and only qualified candidates from the category should be considered for these posts.
The PTI teachers demanded that 5,000 posts should be announced in government primary schools across the state.
Also, hundreds of members of the Computer Adhiypak Union held a protest in front of the district administration complex seeking merger with the education department.
The protesters alleged that around 7,000 have been working computer teachers for the past 10 years but they were waiting for regular employee benefits, regularisation and merger with the education department.