Kapurthala, February 08: Six Education Guarantee Scheme teachers, who had climbed atop a 100-foot high water tank and threatened to immolate themselves if they were not allowed to re-appear in an exam, climbed down this morning after authorities agreed to their demand.
A teacher identified as Kiranjit Kaur of Faridkot district, who had climbed the water tank along with her colleagues, had set herself afire last evening.
She sustained 90 per cent burns and had been admitted to a hospital in Ludhiana in a critical state. In a bid to get the rest of the teachers climb down, Jalandhar Division Commissioner S R Ladhar and DIG Ishwar Singh made appeals to the teachers through the public address system and assured them that government would accept their genuine demands.
After hectic negotiation with the administration and union leaders, the teachers climbed down at 4 am. Ladhar said the government had agreed to issue a notification today to enable them to reappear in the 10+2 exam so that they could improve their score to qualify for the Elementary teachers training course.
The Commissioner also assured that he would consider the demand of over age teachers for admission in ETT course. The Commissioner has also ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and asked Kapurthala SDM Kuldip Singh Chandi to submit the report within 15 days.
—-Agencies