Chandigarh: The Gurdaspur administration in Punjab had announced to recruit 24 school teachers at four alcohol factories to supervise the supply of liquor. The Punjab government withdrew the order after the opposition slammed it for the decision.
In the light of coronavirus catastrophe, the 24 teachers were going to be deployed at the distilleries to watch over its supply chain, according to the order issued by the office of the Gurdaspur deputy commissioner. The teachers were to be appointed as a special bench with Tehsildar Batala as their nodal officer.
A list of government employees made for the work included teachers from government schools. The Congress government was slammed by the other parties for the shameful decision and trying to ask teachers to do this duty. It has been called shameful and unfortunate by the opposition leaders.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former state education minister, Daljit Singh Cheema called the decision “shameful”, while the AAP MLA Aman Arora termed it “unfortunate” and also said that the image of teachers have taken a hit.
He also said that action must be taken against the official who had the major role in carrying out and suggesting this decision. “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,” said Mr. Singh.
“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 too had criticized 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.
Teachers said that was too outrageous and humiliating to ask them to keep an eye over the alcohol factories. They said that they belong in schools and educational institutions imparting knowledge to the students and not in liquor factories. The comments from the teachers allotted for this duty weren’t reported.
The district administration took back its order later. “Teachers’ duties at liquor factories have been cancelled with immediate effect,” it read. It came after the government received backlash from the leaders and members of the other parties of the country calling out the decision.
In a country where teachers are considered to be Gods, this act downright degraded their services towards shaping the future citizens of our nation by investing their time, knowledge and hard work.
