2 days ago
Unemployed teachers prevented from reaching Faridkot to meet CM amid tight security
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Bathinda: Ten days after police entered a classroom to stop associate teacher Veerpal Kaur Sidhana from joining a protest, she was again confronted by police on Thursday morning as she attempted to leave her home.
A police party from Bathinda arrived at her residence around 5 am and tried to dissuade her from going to school. When she insisted, the officers consulted senior officials and eventually allowed her to proceed with her husband.
Meanwhile, two unemployed individuals climbed atop a water tank in Sandhwan village, the native village of Punjab assembly speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan in Faridkot district, in protest.
The action was part of a larger agitation led by the Shaheed Kiranjit Kaur Pre-Primary Associate Adhyapak Union Punjab, which had called for a gathering in Faridkot on Independence Day to question chief minister Bhagwant Mann about the regularisation of services for associate teachers.
Veerpal Kaur, who leads the union, said they are demanding regularisation with benefits equal to those of regular teachers. She recounted how police had previously entered her classroom on Aug 4 and remained there for six hours, despite her having no plans to protest that day.
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She expressed frustration over the repeated attempts to prevent her from exercising her democratic rights, questioning whether this is the kind of independence freedom fighters had envisioned.
Ahead of Independence Day, activists affiliated with the Berojgar Sanjha Morcha—a coalition of five organisations including unemployed BEd graduates—were either placed under house arrest or stopped from reaching Sangrur and Faridkot, where the chief minister was scheduled to unfurl the national flag.
Activists Gurpreet Singh and Manish Fazilka climbed a water tank in Sandhwan to draw attention to their demands.
Under its campaign Yudh Berojgari Virudh (War Against Unemployment), the Sanjha Morcha has called for the filling of vacant posts in the master cadre, lecturers, and assistant professors, scrapping the 55% marks condition for master cadre recruitment, age relaxation for overage unemployed individuals, and re-issuance of advertisements for withdrawn posts.
Leaders Harjinder Singh and Sukhwinder Dhilwan alleged that several activists were placed under house arrest to prevent them from launching a pucca morcha near the chief minister's residence in Sangrur.
Bathinda SSP Amneet Kondal clarified that the police had visited Veerpal Kaur's residence only to gather inputs, not to stop her from going to school.
Unemployed Sanjha Morcha president Harjinder Singh said Faridkot had been turned into a police cantonment, with protesters being denied entry.
He added that even a leader of Sikh organisations had been placed under house arrest.
Congress leader and former MLA Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon criticised the state government, pointing out that previous leaders like Parkash Singh Badal and Captain Amarinder Singh had visited Faridkot without such heavy security arrangements. He said the current measures for the chief minister's visit from the Aam Aadmi Party were excessive and caused inconvenience to the public.
(Pics: Police outside Veerpal Kaur Sidhana's house, unemployed atop water tank)
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