Failing To Create Jobs, UP Govt Orders Lathicharge On Protesting Youth

'Yogi hum ammanaya hain' (Yogi, we are invalid), 'Bharti do ya arthi do'(recruit us or give us bier), these were few of the slogans chanted by aspirant teachers protesting since Saturday in Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow, who were beaten mercilessly by the police.

More than a hundred candidates were injured in front of the Basic Education Directorate in Nishatganj on Sunday during the protest agains missing names in the counselling list for assistant teachers.

According to a report by The Times Of India, 6,000 aspirants who had appeared for the Assistant Teacher’s Recruitment Exams-2018, were protesting against their names being dropped from the district-wise counselling list, which was released on August 31.

Many of the aspirants, who had been protesting since Saturday, fainted on the main road leading up to Mahanagar. Even women candidates were dragged and thrashed by women constables.

Speaking with Newsclick, Ameeque Jamei, spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party, said, "The Akhilesh-led state government had created 68,500 teacher’s jobs and 41,556 applicants cleared the exam. But six thousand students did not find their names in the final counselling list despite clearing the exam. If the Yogi government would have advertised for 68,500 jobs instead of the cutting of seats, more students could have benefited."  

Ameeque further added that the failure of the government to fill the existing vacancies and instead the move to appoint more and more on contractual positions had also led to violation of the reservation policy. As the government does not even consider the youth of the state as useful, it is pointless to expect the creation of jobs by the government, he added.

On Sunday, Adityanath made a bizarre statement that plenty of government jobs are available in the state but there is a dearth of educated and suitable candidates to grab them. 

Ameeque went on to add, "Later the government accepted their demands and promised that soon they will be allotting them their districts in counselling, but if they had to agree then why did the police beat them." 

Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav also took to Twitter to condemn the government saying, "When the candidates are demanding the remaining 32,640 seats immediately of the '68500 teacher recruitment' and against the irregularities of the evaluation, the BJP government is harassing them. Degrading behavior to the unemployed youth of the state has become a habit of the BJP immersed in the ego of power." 

‘68500 शिक्षक भर्ती’ में शेष 32640 सीटों को तुरंत भरे जाने व मूल्यांकन की अनियमितताओं के ख़िलाफ़ जब अभ्यर्थी माँग कर रहे हैं, तो भाजपा सरकार उन्हें प्रताड़ित कर रही है. प्रदेश के बेबस बेरोज़गार युवाओं के साथ अपमानजनक व्यवहार सत्ता के अहंकार में डूबे भाजपाइयों की आदत बन गयी है. pic.twitter.com/ZN8FSgK7Vh

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) September 2, 2018

Recently, about 3,700 Ph.D holders, 28,000 post-graduates and 58,000 graduates had applied for 62 posts of telecom messengers in the UP Police. The minimum qualification for the post was primary education. Over-educated youth making a beeline for a peon’s job belies the CM’s claims which had created a national uproar.