A police team will accompany the teachers at the checkpoints (Representational)

Chandigarh:

Around 40 Punjab government teachers will now guard prominent checkpoints of Phagwara in Kapurthala district between 9 pm and 1 am to stop illegal sand mining in the area, the state government said in an order.

This order comes a month after the state revoked a similar order that deployed 24 school teachers to guard distilleries in Gurdaspur.

Teachers will be posted at prominent police checkpoints in Kapurthala district’s Phagwara city to stop illegal sand mining, the new order says.

Phagwara’s Sub-Divisional Magistrate and senior officials of civil and police administration, in a communication exchange, were informed that the teachers will be posted at the checkpoints between 9pm and 1am and will be accompanied by a police team.

Calling the order “shameful”, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has slammed the Congress government in the state for involving government teachers in non-teaching activities.

Party spokesperson and former Education Minister of Punjab Daljit Singh Cheema tweeted: “After distilleries now Punjab govt deputes teachers at various police nakas to stop sand mining. Timings from 9 PM to 1 AM. One fails to understand that why time and again govt is exposing teachers to liquor & sand mafia? This shameful order should be withdrawn immediately.”

Last month, the Punjab government was massively criticised for a controversial order issued by the office of the Gurdaspur deputy commissioner that deployed 24 teachers at liquor factories to keep an eye on the supply of alcohol and was forced to revoke the order.

“The officer who passed the orders should face action. Sale of liquor is not the only thing that the Congress government should be obsessed with,” Daljit Singh Cheema had said.