Now, ETT-TET pass teachers climb atop water tank in Kharar

Mohali: A group of teachers climbed atop a

water tank

in Kharar on Thursday to press their demands. This is the second group of teachers to do so. Earlier, members of 646 unemployed

Physical Training Instructors

(PTI) Teachers Union staged a fast-unto-death atop a water tank near Singh Shaheedan Gurdwara.

This time, Elementary Teacher Training-Teacher Eligibility Test (ETT-TET) Qualified Unemployed Teachers Union members climbed atop the tank in Kharar. Aman Rana and Dharampal Nukerian climbed the water tank near Desu Majra early on Thursday and threatened to jump if Punjab government did not fulfill their demands.

Representatives of the teachers’ union, who were wearing black ribbons, said their two colleagues protesting on top of the tank were facing many challenges. “They have pledged to sit on fast-unto-death atop the water tank and may also jump to death if their demands are not met,” they warned.

Union president Deepak Kamboj said, “We had raised our demands in 2016, when Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and MP Preneet Kaur assured that our demands would be fulfilled. Four years after the Congress came to power in the state, the ruling dispensation is still ignoring us.”

The teachers demanded publication of one lakh ETT teachers recruitment notification, consideration only for only EET-TET pass teachers, relaxation in age limit, abolition of points for higher qualification and withdrawal of extra weightage given to education providers and volunteers.

In June, union members gheraoed the entry and exit of then chief minister’s farm house in Siswan. Around 100 teachers sneaked towards the CM’s residence in Siswan and gathered outside, taking the former cheif minister’s security cordon by surprise for the second time. Earlier, four men buried a body next to the boundary wall of the CM’s residence.

After this, 646 unemployed physical training instructors (PTI) Teachers Union used a wooden ladder to climb atop the water tank. In 2019, the concrete staircase of the tank was demolished by the Mohali administration to prevent people from climbing it.

Four protesting teachers climbed the tank and sat on hunger strike at a height of around 26 feet, said union president Gurlabh Singh alias Bhola. One of them climbed down but a woman teacher is sitting on fast-unto-death and has refused to come down.