Aparna Banerji
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, December 30
Members of the Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha (an umbrella body of 11 teacher organisations) took out a flag march here on Thursday. A cavalcade of over 100 vehicles rallied across Education Minister Pargat Singh’s constituency.
Will keep fighting
Despite assurances, our demands have not been met. On Dec 15, we met the Education Minister. He posted about it online, but our demands still remain unaddressed. Even after the code of conduct is implemented, we will keep raising these demands. — Vikramjit Singh, Democratic Teachers’ front
The flag march started from the Urban Estate Phase 2 area and headed towards Pargat’s residence at Dashmesh Colony. It passed through Jandiala and halted at Sarhali village. Slogans were raised against the Chief Minister, the Education Minister and the state government. The march would continue on Friday too.
While the Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha alone represents over 1 lakh teachers in the state, its prime demands include recruitments to over 30,000 posts of teachers lying vacant in the education department, withdrawal of cases filed by the government against teachers protesting in various stirs, reversal of various decisions taken to victimise teachers, clearing of pending promotions and stalled transfers of many teachers.
Vikramjit Singh, from the Democratic Teachers’ Front, said: “Despite assurances, our demands have not been accepted. We staged a protest on December 8 and on December 15, we held a meeting with the Education Minister. He posted about it on the social media but our demands still remain unaddressed. Even after the code of conduct is implemented, we will keep raising these demands.”
A number of protesters have been staging dharnas and agitation before the residence of the Education Minister recently. Ahead of the 2022 elections, various teacher outfits have started a series of agitations here — some of them have even been going door to door to mobilise support for their protests and also propagating against the government.
Withdraw cases, fill vacant posts, say jobless teachers in Jalandhar
{$excerpt:n}
