B.Ed candidates go on the rampage

KURNOOL: Tense situation prevailed here on Monday with B.Ed candidates going on a rampage at the district collectorate here on Monday. They staged a dharna and blocked traffic for nearly five hours at the collectorate demanding direct recruitment to teacher posts in Kurnool district.Senior police officers arrived at the scene and arrested nearly 30 persons and shifted them to III town police station, after the1000-strong agitators held up traffic and broke the window panes of various offices in the collector’s office barging into it. The agitators were demanding direct recruitment for all teacher posts and scraping of GO No 3 which permits 70 per cent of the vacancies to be filled up on promotions.The agitators reached NTR circle in the morning and began their protest with rasta roko. Traffic came to a standstill up to 2 km on either side. The candidates, who were protesting for the past one week, laid siege to the collectorate on Monday. They were irked by the remarks of collector Ram Shankar Naik who said ‘Get Out’ and went away from the place.The angry youths rushed into the office and broke the glass panes of the Grievance Cell, DRDA and DWMA offices.With police arriving in sufficient numbers and trying to control them, an altercation broke out and the protestors raised slogans against the collector.Finding the protestors unrelenting, SP M Siva Prasad and additional SP Padmakar Rao, DSP Latha Madhuri swung into action.Thirty candidates were arrested and shifted to police station. AIDWA state vicepresident P Nirmala, district secretary K Ratna Mala , who expressed solidarity with the agitators, were also taken into custody. The new DSC which says that only 30 per cent of the posts will be filled by recruitment and 70 per cent on promotions is not fair, the agitators said. All post should be filled through direct recruitment only and GO No 3 should be scrapped, they demanded.Steps should also be taken to make B.Ed candidates eligible for secondary grade teacher posts, they said.Meanwhile, anganwadi workers, 104 workers, Dalit organisations and teachers union too reached the place and held their dharnas. Traffic was badly disrupted at the collectorate till evening.