Democratic Teachers’ Front stages protest against returning officer

LUDHIANA: The Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) on Saturday staged a protest against Kulpreet Singh, returning officer of Ludhiana 1, outside deputy commissioner’s office.
They were protesting against the “abusive and inhuman behaviour” of Kulpreet towards the teachers and other staff deployed on duty during the zila parishad election held recently.
Besides a bad arrangement during rehearsals and at the collection centre, the teachers claimed that Singh had an objectionable and uncommon behaviour, especially towards female employees.
On September 19, the officer forced the deployed staff to stay hungry all day, and when the teachers raised the issue, he acted rudely and instructed his subordinates and police personnel to detain the teachers.
Teachers including Daljeet Samrala, Manga Singh and Damanpreet Singh alleged getting bullied by the officer. Teachers across the district wanted to meet the DC in this regard, but couldn’t. The leaders of the teachers’ group said, “If the returning officer and the concerned employees are not prosecuted, all the teachers in the district will boycott election duty.”
The leaders also warned that if any action is not taken by the Ludhiana administration against the accused officers in the coming days, they will gherao the officer’s house.
DTF expressed that it is the responsibility of the Ludhiana administration and the state government to punish the officer for his unwelcome behaviour.
The DTF members met additional deputy commissioner Iqbal Singh Sandhu and submitted a copy of the complaint regarding the demand of disciplinary and legal action against returning officer Kulpreet Singh.