ETT teachers protest outside BJP office

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 1

Members of the Unemployed ETT TET Pass Teachers Union on Saturday gathered near the bus stand, Jalandhar, and raised slogans against the central government. The teachers then marched to the BJP’s head office in Jalandhar. The union has also announced that they will protest against the central government at Ferozepur on the occasion of the Prime Minister’s address on Januray 5 if their demands are not met.

The intense agitation of the teachers even evinced a response today from Cabinet Minister Gajendra Shekhwat who was present at the BJP office regarding their protest today. Teachers gathered at the bus stand from where they marched to the BJP main election office in Jalandhar. After heated exchange with police, teachers broke away barricades a few feet away from the office to air their protest. Following the commotion, Union cabunet minister and Punjab Election uincharge Gajendra Shekhwat came out and assured ETT Teachers that he will take up their issue with the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. He assured them of finding a problem to their solution and also ensured them a time for a meeting.

The ETT Unemployed Teachers which have been protesting against the Congress government said the prime reasons for the protest outside the BJP office today was that like Congress government, the central governemnt has also drafted privatisation policies which are against teachers.

They termed rules of the NCTE in 2018 for the appointment primary teachers as one such regulation. They said while as per the rule, B.Ed candidates were kept on par with ETT teachers for appointments, due to this rule, the recruitment process of 10,000 ETT teachers is embroiled in a court case.

Teachers while speaking on the occasion said, “The Congress government had promised Ghar Ghar Rozgar but we have been spending subsequent years outside ministers and party offices seeking that rozgar (employment). Subsequent governments have been adopting dilly-dallying tactics. We have also been holding for outside the Education Minister’s house for our demands. On New Years, people send congratulations but we have nothing to celebrate. With the central government also failing to address our issues we have held a protest at the BJP office today. We will also hold an agitation on January 5 regarding out demands.”

State president of the union Deepak Kamboj, senior vice president Sandeep Sama, Balwinder Kaka, Surinderpal, Gurdaspur, among others were present during the agitation. Notably, members of the ETT 180 union are also already sitting on a dharna outside the Education Minister’s residence in Jalandhar.