Protesting JBT teachers detained, released

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, June 11

The police detained hundreds of newly appointed Junior Basic Training (JBT) teachers, including women, for staging a dharna near the Chief Minister’s camp office here today.

The teachers were protesting against the show-cause notices issued by the Education Department for termination of service of 1,259 newly appointed teachers by cancelling their appointment letters.

The department had issued notices to them in compliance with the recent orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Fearing loss of jobs, hundreds of newly appointed JBT teachers under the banner of the Rajkiya JBT Sangharsh Samiti staged a dharna near the Chief Minister’s camp office.

DSP Shakuntla and Naib Tehsildar Rajbaksh Arora tried to pacify them. They asked the JBT teachers to shift to some other place, but they remained adamant.

Following this, the police detained them. They were dragged and pushed into police vehicles. The situation remained tense as the teachers opposed detention. Some of the detained JBT teachers were taken to the new Police Lines and others to the Assandh and Indri police stations.

They were released after some time. The teachers were taken into preventive custody and released after some time, said Arora.

“We are protesting here as there is no other way to wake the government up. We are being sacked after joining and attendance of more than 30 days,” said Pardeep Kumar, a protesting teacher.

“The department had issued show-cause notices regarding termination of service. It was a setback for us as we had been waiting for employment for a long time,” said Renu Rani, another protester.

Deepak Kumar, yet another protester, pleaded that the credentials of all candidates should be verified before declaring the results.