Hindustan Times (Jalandhar)

WILL FILL 902 ETT POSTS IN TWO DAYS, PUNJAB TELLS HC

- HT Correspond­ent letterschd@hindustant­imes.com n

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government will fill 902 vacant posts of elementary trained teachers (ETTs) during two days of counsellin­g that started on Friday. Punjab additional advocate general PPS Thethi revealed this while appearing before the Punjab and Haryana high court. >>P3

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government will fill 902 vacant posts of elementary trained teachers (ETTs) during two days of counsellin­g that started on Friday.

Punjab additional advocate general PPS Thethi revealed this while appearing before the Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) on Friday. Thethi told HC that 1,817 eligible candidates had been called for counsellin­g for 902 posts. As many as 612 vacancies are being filled on Friday and the remaining on Saturday. The counsellin­g was conducted for 385 posts in general category, 182 in backward classes’ category and 45 posts withheld earlier. On Saturday, 150 general posts, 117 backward classes posts and 23 withheld posts will be filled, Thethi told the HC.

The Punjab law officer said that Deepak Kumar, the lone protester atop a mobile tower in Chandigarh since November 3, is at serial number 220 on the Friday’s list and at serial number 165 on the Saturday’s list. The counsellin­g is part of recruiting teachers against two advertisem­ents of 4,500 and 2,005 posts. The HC bench of justices SS Saron and Lisa Gill adjourned the hearing twice as a statement was made by amicus curiae Tanu Bedi that Kumar was ready to climb down. However, despite efforts of the UT administra­tion and others, he did not budge.

Later, the HC bench closed the suo motu petition in view of the government’s statement. The petition was initiated earlier this month following reports of four wannabe ETTs climbing towers seeking appointmen­t letters. Others had later come down. The HC termed the conduct of protesters as “unfortunat­e” but did not pass any harsh order. To prevent a repeat of such incidents, the HC bench has allowed advocates HC Arora, Tanu Bedi and Jagmohan Bhatti to file a public interest litigation (PIL) on the issue.

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