Punjab Government Slammed For Teachers' Liquor Duty, Withdraws Order

The Punjab government on Thursday cancelled the Gurdaspur administration's decision to deploy twenty-four school teachers at four distilleries to monitor the supply of liquor. The move was announced after the opposition slammed the Congress government for the decision.

According to the order issued by the office of the Gurdaspur deputy commissioner, in view of the corona crisis, 24 teachers were to be deployed at liquor factories to keep an eye on the supply of alcohol. They were to be appointed as special magistrates with Tehsildar Batala as their nodal officer.

A list of government employees made for the task included teachers of state-run schools.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former state education minister, Daljit Singh Cheema termed the decision "shameful".

"The officer who passed the orders should face action. Sale of liquor is not the only thing that the Congress government should be obsessed with," he said.

AAP MLA Aman Arora called the decision "unfortunate", and said the image of teachers have taken a hit.

"After deploying teachers at barricades and grain markets, the Congress government now wants teachers to monitor the supply of liquor. This reflects the regressive mindset towards our nation-builders," he said.

School teachers had also slammed the decision. "This is a shameful order to say the least. How can you ask school teachers to guard distilleries?" said a lady teacher from Amritsar.

The district administration later withdrew the order. "Teachers' duties at liquor factories have been cancelled with immediate effect," it read.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)