Over 1500 JACTO-GEO protestors arrested, hundreds of police officials deployed to curb chaos

Police arrested 1531 government employees who participated in the JACTO -GEO protest on Monday. The education department has also issued a suspension of 27 government teachers as criminal charges have been filed against them. The Monday grievance day meeting was also affected because of the protest.

The fourth day of the indefinite strike by the JACTO-GEO resumed on Monday despite the arrest of 58 organizers with JACTO-GEO on Monday near the Dharmapuri collectors office. The arrest of teacher gathered near the Collector office leading to altercations and arguments breaking out between teachers and police. So far police have reported that 1531 government employees have been arrested.

Since thousands of JACTTO-GEO members have continued their indefinite strike on Monday too, though few of them were lodged in prison, hundreds of police officials led by Superintendent of Police (SP) Ara Arularasu were deployed in the city.

The arrested teachers said that the police are being unfair. According to a teacher, the police just walked up to them and forced them into the bus. But senior police officials said, "During the three days of protest traffic was severely affected and the people are aggrieved over this. We were doing our duty to maintain peace." 

Meanwhile, the Education Department has announced that 27 teachers have been suspended from active duty. Ramasamy, CEO of Dharmapuri said that the 27 teachers were suspended as criminal charges were lodged against them. Ramasamy also added that currently the application for the temporary teachers are being collected and so far 1800 applications have been collected and are being reviewed. The Monday grievance day meeting was also disrupted by the police, as many people who had come to file petitions were prevented entry.

A senior police official said that many people had gathered to watch the protest, the people were also being a cause for the severe traffic problem. He added that "we did not prevent them from entering we just asked them to use the second entrance so that police do not mistake them for protestors."