Bathinda, January 27
The police today rounded up several guest faculty lecturers from outside the District Administrative Complex in an attempt to stop them from blocking the road and bringing the traffic to a standstill.
The lecturers, however, claimed that they were being wrongfully d
etained as they were not blocking the road but were “merely dispersing”.
Close to 800 lecturers, teaching at 52 government degree colleges across the state, today assembled in Bathinda to hold a state-level dharna against the state government. The lecturers gathered near the Ambedkar Chowk and shouted slogans against the state government while various district presidents addressed the gathering.
“The lecturers had been protesting since morning and the police personnel were deployed at the dharna site. But the police didn’t take any action till the time the protest remained peaceful. Around 3.30 pm, the lecturers suddenly started running towards the road, clearly planning to block it. We couldn’t have let them hold the commuters at ransom and hence, had to resort to rounding them up,” said DSP (City) Gurmeet Singh Kingra, who was present there.
“We also tried to convince them to curtail their protest and promised them that a meeting with the Chief Minister of Punjab and a panel of senior officials from the Education Department will be fixed for them. But the protestors didn’t heed our requests and started blocking the road,” he added.
However, the protestors held a completely different view. “After taking out a peaceful protest march around the city, we reached the GT Road and were planning to disperse when the police personnel suddenly started arresting the lecturers and packing them into their vans and buses. This is a clear violation of our constitutional rights,” said Ritu Aggarwal, a guest faculty lecturer at the Government Rajindra College, Bathinda.
It is pertinent to mention here that a deputation of the lecturers today met Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal during his Sangat Darshan programme at Bhokhra village. “The meeting failed to bear any fruits. We voiced our concerns and demands in front of the Deputy CM and all he did was to keep a memorandum of our demands with him. He didn’t make any promise of solving the problem. It was highly disappointing,” said Harmandar Singh, state president of the lecturers’ union.
Singh added that the government is refraining from keeping its promise since it would mean that it will have to shell out money for paying the guest faculty lecturers.
“In December 2011, the state government had announced that the guest faculty lecturers will be paid Rs 10,000 per month and will also be given an annual increment of 10 per cent. The government had also agreed that the salaries of the guest faculty lecturers will be paid from the state treasury and that the PTA funds of the colleges will not be used to pay the lecturers,” Singh added.
Case registered
The Bathinda police today registered a case against more than two dozens of guest faculty lecturers, including women for blocking traffic in the city during their protest. DSP Gurmeet Kingra said the exact number of protesters who will be booked for creating chaos and blocking traffic would be ascertained late in the evening.
The police today rounded up several guest faculty lecturers from outside the District Administrative Complex in an attempt to stop them from blocking the road and bringing the traffic to a standstill.
The lecturers, however, claimed that they were being wrongfully d
etained as they were not blocking the road but were “merely dispersing”.
Close to 800 lecturers, teaching at 52 government degree colleges across the state, today assembled in Bathinda to hold a state-level dharna against the state government. The lecturers gathered near the Ambedkar Chowk and shouted slogans against the state government while various district presidents addressed the gathering.
“The lecturers had been protesting since morning and the police personnel were deployed at the dharna site. But the police didn’t take any action till the time the protest remained peaceful. Around 3.30 pm, the lecturers suddenly started running towards the road, clearly planning to block it. We couldn’t have let them hold the commuters at ransom and hence, had to resort to rounding them up,” said DSP (City) Gurmeet Singh Kingra, who was present there.
“We also tried to convince them to curtail their protest and promised them that a meeting with the Chief Minister of Punjab and a panel of senior officials from the Education Department will be fixed for them. But the protestors didn’t heed our requests and started blocking the road,” he added.
However, the protestors held a completely different view. “After taking out a peaceful protest march around the city, we reached the GT Road and were planning to disperse when the police personnel suddenly started arresting the lecturers and packing them into their vans and buses. This is a clear violation of our constitutional rights,” said Ritu Aggarwal, a guest faculty lecturer at the Government Rajindra College, Bathinda.
It is pertinent to mention here that a deputation of the lecturers today met Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal during his Sangat Darshan programme at Bhokhra village. “The meeting failed to bear any fruits. We voiced our concerns and demands in front of the Deputy CM and all he did was to keep a memorandum of our demands with him. He didn’t make any promise of solving the problem. It was highly disappointing,” said Harmandar Singh, state president of the lecturers’ union.
Singh added that the government is refraining from keeping its promise since it would mean that it will have to shell out money for paying the guest faculty lecturers.
“In December 2011, the state government had announced that the guest faculty lecturers will be paid Rs 10,000 per month and will also be given an annual increment of 10 per cent. The government had also agreed that the salaries of the guest faculty lecturers will be paid from the state treasury and that the PTA funds of the colleges will not be used to pay the lecturers,” Singh added.
Case registered
The Bathinda police today registered a case against more than two dozens of guest faculty lecturers, including women for blocking traffic in the city during their protest. DSP Gurmeet Kingra said the exact number of protesters who will be booked for creating chaos and blocking traffic would be ascertained late in the evening.
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