EGS volunteer sets himself ablaze in Bathinda

Thursday, 22/12/2016

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=170232&boxid=57869&uid=&dat=2016-12-22

Bathinda : Irked over the ‘insensitive’ attitude of the state government towards his demand for regularisation of job, a volunteer of Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) teachers’ union on Wednesday set himself on fire at Fauji Chowk in the city.

After the media persons and the members of his union doused the flames, the agitator identified as Samarpreet Singh was rushed to Civil Hospital here, from where the doctors referred him to the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, observing his critical condition.

During the whole development, civil administration of the district behaved absolutely insensitively, which enhanced the annoyance among the protesters. People present in the hospital informed that the police and civil officials also had a verbal spat in full public view for their poor coordination to handle the situation.

An executive magistrate who reached the hospital was found ‘excessively’ busy in reporting the matter to all his seniors over phone. He didn’t even bother to speak to the colleagues of Samarpreet attending to him in the hospital.

After the issue took a serious turn, ADC Sheena Aggarwal reached the hospital but by that time, the doctors had referred the injured protester to Faridkot.

According to information, the EGS/AIE/STR volunteers were staging protest in the city for past couple of days. Three of the agitators identified as Samarpreet Singh, Nishant and Amarjeet Kaur had climbed atop a water reservoir on November 6. Initially unmoved over the development, the district administration recently held a dialogue with the agitating union leaders and arranged their sitting with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. According to the schedule, a delegation of the agitating visited the CM at Kapurthala but the exercise failed to bear any fruit. Frustrated the delegation members returned back to Bathinda and rejoined the agitation.

During their spree of staging dharna and holding protest march in the city, the protesters launched their march from Fire Brigade Chowk in the city and set the effigy of state government on fire once at Fauji Chowk. They were all shouting anti-establishment slogans when Samarpreet Singh, climbing down the overhead water reservoir, reached the protest site. Pouring petrol on him, the bottle of which he was carrying along, Samarpreet jumped into the fire.

SSP ‘misbehaves’, doctors protest

Finding the situation could take an ugly turn with the protesters assembling in the hospital to see their burnt colleague, Bathinda SSP Swapan Sharma reached the hospital. Claiming that he was not satisfied with the performance of the doctor on emergency duty there, he reportedly shouted at him. Going ahead, Sharma went on warning the hospital staff that he would write against the doctor on duty to Secretary Health.