Chandigarh, August 4, 2014: The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President, Partap Singh Bajwa, today strongly condemned the brutal police lathicharge on the peacefully protesting ETT teachers in Amritsar yesterday and demanded immediate and unconditional withdrawal of cases registered against them.
In a statement, Bajwa said letting loose police repression against peaceful protesters was against all canons of democratic norms and it betrayed anti-people attitude of the Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal and his government.
He pointed out that the Sikhs get agitated when told by security men to remove their turbans for check-up at international airports abroad but in Punjab, the policemen themselves were showing total disrespect to turbans and this had not happened for the first time.
Extending full support to the demands of the ETT teachers who have been demanding their absorption into regular cadre, he said that there was shortage of teachers in Punjab and the education system was in shambles but the state government continued to be indifferent and playing havoc with future of our children.
He made it clear that peaceful agitation was the right of every citizen guaranteed under the constitution but the Badal government had adopted dictatorial attitude towards such agitations as it had failed to meet aspirations of various sections of society.