Punjab Police use water cannon to disperse protesting teachers

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The North News

Mohali, February 9

Police on Sunday used a water cannon on several teachers, who were protesting here over demands of regular appointment benefits, when they attempted to head towards the chief minister’s residence in Chandigarh.

Under the banner of Special Cadre Teachers Front, Punjab, protesters had given a call to ‘gherao’ the CM’s residence.

However, a heavy police force was deployed at the Chandigarh-Mohali border point to prevent them from moving ahead towards Chandigarh. Barricades were also raised by police at the border point.

As soon as teachers including women teachers climbed the barricades, police used a water cannon against them.

A protesting teacher, Anubhav Gupta, claimed that one of the teachers suffered an injury to his hand.

The protesting teachers said over 12,000 temporary teachers were given appointment letters for regular jobs in 2023 by the AAP government.

However, the benefits of the regular appointments have not been given yet, they claimed.

They demanded that the state government should implement the pay scale for the special cadre teachers and service rules under the policy for welfare of adhoc, contractual, temporary teachers.

They also demanded that implementation of the old pension scheme, medical reimbursement, group insurance scheme, ex-gratia grant gratuity, mobile allowance, child care leave, etc.

They also demanded that the service period of special cadre teachers should be increased from 58 years to 65 years.