By TCN Special Correspondent,
Lucknow: Demanding jobs, the unemployed Moallim-e-Urdu (Urdu teacher) degree holders climbed atop an overhead water tank in filmy style at a block of Darulsafa in Lucknow on Monday morning while others staged a sit in below the tank.
However, their mode of protest resulted in police beating them black and blue. Many of them including women were injured and bundled off in ambulances.
The dharna of the Moallim-e-Urdu degree holders was going on peacefully when six protestors Mohammed Mansoor Alam of Hathras, Nuzhat Jahan, Ishrat Jahan, Nafis- all of Bareilly, Baby Shabana of Sitapur and Azam of Mau gained access to the staircase and climbed the overhead tank in a filmy style. This resulted in panic while they gave an ultimatum till 4 pm to meet their demands.
“Our repeated appeals to the government to grant Urdu teachers parity in pay scales with the basic education teachers has fallen on deaf ears, so we have no option but to give up our lives by jumping down from this water tank,” said Hisam Uddin Siddiqui, president of the Muammil Urdu Association, who is one of the six teachers.
“Every time we have met people in the government, we have been assured that our demand would be looked into sympathetically, but nothing appears to have been done so far, so where do we go?” lamented Siddiqui. He said there are as many as 5,000 such teachers across the state.
Hundreds of teachers gathered in support of the agitators and raised anti-government slogans.
After the repeated persuasion failed to yield any result, the administration summoned military. Members of Rajput Regiment from Lucknow Cantonment also arrived at the scene. As the deliberations and drama was going on, DM Anil Kumar Sagar and DIG DK Thakur too arrived at the scene.
After little bit of persuasion, they ordered lathi charge on those sitting on the ground.
After that all hell broke loose and police thrashed them brutally with six policemen beating one protestor. Many of them were soaked in blood and received serious injuries. In the melee, the commandoes gained access to the staircase and reached upstairs and pulled down the six protestors. They were also beaten up brutally and even the women were not spared and policemen took turns in beating them.
However DM Anil Sagar stated that the police worked with restraint and tried to persuade the agitators. He said the administration had assured of redressal of their problems still the group opted to climb the tank and thus breached the law and order. He said action will be taken against the agitators.