Demanding regularisation of job and a raise in salary, scores of temporary teachers staged a protest outside the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) here on Wednesday, with nearly half a dozen of them reaching the rooftop of the office building with petrol-filled bottles and some poisonous substance and threatening to kill themselves.
Under the banner of the Temporary Teachers' Union, more than 500 teachers laid siege to the PSEB building to press the Congress-led state government to accept their demands.
A heavy police force was deployed outside the multi-storey building. Nearly half a dozen of the protesters, however, managed to reach the rooftop with petrol-filled bottles and some poisonous substance.
Talking to reporters, they threatened to end their lives if their demands were not met by the government. The protest continued till the last reports came in.
The protesting teachers of primary schools shouted slogans against the Amarinder Singh-led government.
They demanded that a total of 13,000 temporary teachers who had been teaching for the last several years in the state should be regularised without any condition.
Satinder Singh, who teaches in a primary school in Tarn Taran district, said, "I started in 2011 at a salary of Rs 2,000. And now I am getting just Rs 6,000."
The protesting teachers slammed Chief Minister Amarinder Singh for not addressing their issues in the last four-and-half years.
A protesting teacher said Mr Singh, before coming to power, had promised them that their demands would be accepted. "But nothing has been done yet despite completion of four-and-half years of his term," he said.
The agitating teachers also demanded a meeting with Punjab Education minister Vijay Inder Singla.
Meanwhile, BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh slammed the Congress government for its callous attitude towards temporary teachers.
Holding the chief minister responsible for the situation that compelled the teachers to take to the streets, the BJP leader said the state government had "ignored" their demands.
He alleged Punjab has become a state where all sections are "unhappy" with the Amarinder Singh-led government.
"Be it government employees, teachers or entrepreneurs, all have been holding demonstrations against the Amarinder Singh government which has failed to deliver," he alleged in a statement.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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