After being stopped from trying to meet CM Bhagwat Mann and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal, who led a road show here on Friday, members of the Physical Training Instructor (PTI) Union staged a protest by climbing the water tank in Jawahar Nagar.
The agitated aspiring physical instructors, who staged a similar demonstration on Wednesday as well, complained they wanted to meet CM Mann and Kejriwal and talk to them about the promises made to them before the 2022 assembly elections but were stopped by a strong police presence.
“CM Mann and Kejriwal took out such an elaborate rally in the city. Didn’t they have five minutes to listen to our problems?” asked an agitated protestor.
He also alleged that some of their co-protesters who made it to the rally were also arrested.
The union has been demanding action from the Punjab government over the long-pending recruitment of PTI teachers. The protesters said that despite a government advertisement in 2021 promising 2,000 new PTI posts in government schools, the application portal is still not open and accepting forms.
CM Mann and Kejriwal had taken out the rally in support of MP (Rajya Sabha) Sanjeev Arora, who is the party’s bid for the upcoming by polls for the Ludhiana West seat, which has been lying vacant ever since the death of sitting AAP legislator Gurpreet Gogi in January.
{{/usCountry}}CM Mann and Kejriwal had taken out the rally in support of MP (Rajya Sabha) Sanjeev Arora, who is the party’s bid for the upcoming by polls for the Ludhiana West seat, which has been lying vacant ever since the death of sitting AAP legislator Gurpreet Gogi in January.
{{/usCountry}}Pointing to the state government’s ambitious anti-drug campaign ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’, the protesting teachers also argued that if the government wanted to weed out the drugs problem in the state it was very important to have PTIs in primary schools across the state so that children can be connected to sports early in life and don’t fall for drugs when they grow up.