Protesting for jobs, 27 men and 13 women having undergone Elementary Teacher Training (ETT) climbed water tanks in 15 villages in Jalalabad, the assembly constituency of deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in Fazilka district, on Wednesday as part of an ongoing stir across Punjab.
These protesters are from the same group of the ETT union whose members have been on a mobile-signal tower in Chandigarh for over two weeks now and have caught the attention of the Punjab and Haryana high court.
The ‘operation climb water tanks’ began in the wee hours and, as the news spread with sunrise, Sukhbir’s rival and AAP MP Bhagwant Mann reached Sukhera Bodla village and climbed a water tank to express support to the protesters. The other villages included Kahnewala, Dabwala Kalan, Dhandi Kadeem, Jaimalwala, Ladduwala, Katteanwali, Tahliwala Jattan, Kamrewala, Jaddhuwala, Parbhat Singh Wala, Lamondar, Jand Singh Bhimeshah, Thakk Saido Ke and Wadda Phalianwala.
“Our activists will not come down until our major demand of getting regular jobs is met,” association president Amarjit Singh Kamboj said.
He said their talks with chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on November 26 had failed and the education department is “indulging in doublespeak by assuring us of jobs in a week but submitting in the high court that it needs till March”.
{{/usCountry}}He said their talks with chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on November 26 had failed and the education department is “indulging in doublespeak by assuring us of jobs in a week but submitting in the high court that it needs till March”.
{{/usCountry}}