Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Police lathicharge on teachers condemned
Bathinda, July 6: People’s Party of Punjab chief Manpreet Singh Badal today strongly condemned the police repression against the teachers agitating peacefully for the acceptance of their demands and said launching peaceful agitations was the democratic right of every section of society.
He pointed out that these teachers, both men and woman, had not created any disturbance or law and order situation when the police pounced upon them forcing several of them, including a woman teacher, to jump into the Sirhind canal to save themselves. “This is an extreme and the police action violates every norm of democratic polity. The Akali Dal-BJP alliance government cannot function by suppressing the people who are demanding their rights”, he added.
He said these EGS and AIESTR teachers had been agitating for a long time to get their appointments regularised. This is the problem that was common to different sections of government employees recruited on contract basis. This was the manifestation of lack of planning on the part of the government which only showed that the functioning of the government itself was ad hoc and holistic approach to the situations was lacking.
Manpreet said what was all the more serious was that the teachers who tried to escape by taking shelter in nearby houses and shops were dragged out and mercilessly beaten up and even women teachers were not spared.
He said the government could not crush the voice of the people through repression.
He referred to the village in Faridkot district where the people had put up a board banning the entry of the Akali leaders in the village to protest against the continued detention of the students who were arrested while protesting against the molestation and death of a young girl near Moga. There was no justification for the government to keep them in jail.
He said in case the situation continued, such boards would dot entire Punjab as the Akali Dal-BJP government had become a symbol of hate among the people.
