The police on Sunday lathi-charged and used water cannons to disburse a large number of agitating teachers who were heading to protest outside Punjab Education Minister's O P Soni residence here.
The police said they were forced to lathi-charge the agitating teachers when they "purposefully" removed barricades that had been fixed at different locations on the route leading to the house of O P Soni here.
There was a scuffle between police and agitating teachers. In the incident, some policemen and a few teachers were hurt. The agitating teachers were dispersed later, DCP Lakhbir Singh.
The teachers' group raised anti-government slogans "for not getting their full pay scale."
"We were earlier working on contract basis, but a condition was recently put for hiring us as regular employees in the Punjab Education department with starting salary of Rs 15,300. The condition was that we will be given full pay scale, but only after completion of three years of probation," a protesting teacher said.
The teachers said earlier they were getting salary of nearly Rs 50,000 per month on contract basis, but with the regularisation condition their salary was reduced to Rs 15,300 per month.
Protesters have been demanding full pay scale whereas the government was not willing to give the same, they alleged.
Teachers were saying they had spent more than one decade in the education department on contract basis and questioned the need for probation, which they said was not acceptable to them.
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