PATIALA: The unemployed teachers and multipurpose health workers who were protesting jointly under Unemployed Sanjha Morcha banner in Patiala on Sunday were cane charged by the police after they allegedly tried to cross the police barricading in order to gherao the CM's residence.
The police said they resorted to lathi-charge after the Sanjha morcha protestors landed in a clash with the cops on duty and injured two female and two male cops. The police have also registered a case against the protestors under various sections of IPC however no arrests have been made.
The protestors under the Sanjha morcha union were dispersed off by the police that resorted to lathi-charged at around 12.30PM on Sunday near polo ground in Patiala however the protestors returned back again to sit on a protest near YPS Chowk. The police said that Sanjha morcha unemployed protestors in the evening called off their protest after their meeting was fixed with Patiala Member Parliament Preneet Kaur who is also wife of Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh.
In another protest, on Sunday, two of the protestors under ETT-TET pass unemployed teachers’ union jumped into Bhakhra canal near Passiana. The ETT-TET pass protestors had reached in Patiala to carry out their protest and gherao CM residence. They claimed that police cane charged them at around 12.30 PM near Baradari garden in Patiala immediately after they started gathering to take our protest march. The protestors claimed to have later moved towards Bhakhra Canal near Passiana where two protestors jumped into the canal at around 2.30 PM but were saved by the divers nearby.
"The police cane charged and injured our more than 10 members near Baradari following which we moved towards Bhakhra Canal, around 12 kilometers away from the city, and staged protest on main road. The police force reached here and tried to overpower us following which, two of us jumped into the canal”, said Sandeep Sama, ETT-TET pass unemployed teacher union leader. He added, “We are demanding that only ETT – TET pass unemployed should be recruited for the advertised 2364 Elementary Teacher Training (ETT) posts and the state government should advertise more than 10,000 posts of ETT teachers besides extending the age limit from 37 years to 42 years in recruitment.”
The protestors who jumped into the canal were identified as Aman and Bharat of Fazilka. Aman said that they got emotional and feared after police tried to disperse the ETT-TET pass protestors near Bhakhra canal.
“Two leaders of ETT-TET pass union were detained under preventive custody after they reached near the Baradari garden in the city to organise protest but none of them were cane charged. We resorted to lathi charge only protestors of Unemployed Sanjha Morcha near polo ground after they injured our cops. A case is also registered against them”, said DSP Patiala Yogesh Kumar.
Notably, the police in Patiala on March 28 also cane charged numerous TET pass ETT unemployed teachers and released them after brief detention while these protestors were also cane charged in Patiala city by the police on March 8. On March 8, 2020, also, a few ETT-TET pass protestors had jumped in Bhakhra canal near Pasiana village in Patiala
SAD (B) Senior Vice President PS Chandumajra condemned lathi-charge on protestors and said that Congress government in Punjab had failed to deliver its promise of 'Ghar Ghar Rozgar' and was using brutal force against the protesting unemployed. He said the repeated lathi-charge had recalled the times of the British era when people were cane-charged for raising their demands.