Protesting SSA teachers lathicharged in Ropar

Ropar, The police lathicharged protesting Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan teachers here today. During a protest march in the town today, some of them tried to jump the police barricades at Bela Chowk. Thus provoked, the police resorted to a lathi charge. Seven teachers were rounded up and taken to the local police station.
The SSA Rashtirya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) Teachers Union, Punjab, is demanding regular jobs, increase in maternity leave to six months and withdrawal of cases against their colleagues during various agitations.
Varinder Paul Singh, Ropar SSP, said the police had allowed the rally on the assurance by union leaders that the protest would be peaceful.
“However, at Bela Chowk, the teachers tried to jump the barricades even as the union leaders gave a call for blocking the Ropar-Jalandhar highway. To save the public from any inconvenience, we had to resort to a lathi charge,” he said.
The union leaders denied the allegations.
Convener Dawood Alam said they met Education Minister Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, who is Ropar MLA, in December. But the minister refused to accept their demands. “Today, we held a procession in his constituency and asked the police to arrange a meeting with the Chief Minister. But the police beat us up with canes,” he said.
Alam claimed it was the state government’s policy to regularise contractual employees after three years of service. He alleged that most of the 11,000 agitating teachers had put in more than three years of service and yet were denied regular employment.
The Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) has condemned the police action. Its state general secretary Raghunath Singh and Ropar district president Gurdev Singh said that by using force on the teachers, the state government had proved once again that it was anti-people.