PHOTOS: AP

SMOKING THEM OUT: Police personnel pelt stones at temporary primary school teachers who demanded permanent employment, during a rally in Patna on Friday.

PATNA: Fourteen "lok shikshaks" (public teachers) were injured when police resorted to a lathicharge against teachers demanding regularisation of their jobs and a hike in wages here on Friday.

Home Secretary Afzal Amanullah admitted that 14 teachers appointed on an ad hoc basis were injured. However, he denied rumours that one of them had died and maintained that no one was critically injured.

The unofficial figure of the injured was almost double and the condition of some was said to be serious.

He claimed that the police were compelled to retaliate when the demonstrators turned violent and pelted stones. The police used water cannons and teargas shells to disperse the teachers.

All the injured, including a few women teachers, were admitted to local hospitals.The lok shikshaks had gathered in sizeable numbers apparently fearing loss of their jobs in the wake of the Government's decision to appoint 2.3 lakh teachers at the panchayat levels on a monthly remuneration of Rs. 4,000.

The teachers, appointed in December 2002 at the village level to prepare children for school education are now demanding that their salaries be raised from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 4,000 a month and that their services be regularised.

PHOTOS: PTI

Teargas being used to disperse them.

They maintained they had called on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the last week of June when he had promised to concede their demands within a week but there had been no response so far.

Human Resources Development Secretary M.M. Jha, however, made it clear that the Government would not confirm their jobs and would stick to its stand of making fresh recruitment and opening new schools.

He maintained that norms were not followed in the appointment of these lok shikshaks. The Government was inclined to appoint only trained teachers henceforth. Mr. Jha hinted at the possibility of retaining 50 to 60 per cent of these teachers having the requisite qualifications.

Mr. Amanullah said the police had video graphed the episode and criminal cases would be registered against those identified. They would be denied their job even if selected by the Education Department.

Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Rabri Devi demanded the resignation of the Chief Minister and Human Resources Development Minister Brishen Patel charging they were morally responsible for the lathicharge on the peaceful demonstrators.

Mrs. Devi demanded that action be taken against the guilty police personnel and the future of the teachers be guaranteed.

PTI reports from New Delhi:

The fissures in the Janata Dal (U) came to the fore once again with senior party leader George Fernandes on Friday taking pot shots at the Nitish Kumar Government by dubbing as "unpardonable" the lathicharge on the teachers. "The JD (U) made this (justice to teachers) one of the more important planks during the campaign that catapulted Nitish Kumar to the Chief Minister's chair. Since then, the teachers were peacefully crying for justice," said Mr. Fernandes in a statement here. He described as "brutal," the attack on the teachers, who were denied higher wages by the earlier government.

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