Teachers' body accuse SP legislator of manhandling

Several primary school teachers today staged a protest here and burnt effigy of Samajwadi party MLA Bhagwan Sharma, alleging that he manhandled some of them when they met him to submit a memorandum.
Members of district Urdu Teachers' Welfare Association claimed that the legislator from Dibai manhandled and even slapped some of them when they met him yesterday afternoon to hand over a memorandum addressed to the UP Chief Minister.
According to divisional president of the UTWA Yusuf Jamal, a group of teachers had gone to Sharma's residence to hand over a memorandum urging Akhilesh Yadav to reconsider the recent directive to primary teachers asking them to keep their cell phones available at a particular hour in the morning for verification of their attendance.

Yusuf said their talk with Sharma was proceeding cordially when suddenly he left the room and for some inexplicable reason turned hostile on his return.
Following a mild altercation with a member of the delegation, the MLA turned abusive and manhandled some members of the delegation, he alleged.
Sharma, on being asked by reporters to give his version, said the incident was being blown out of proportion by some persons who were deliberately trying to defame him on political grounds.
The MLA blamed opposition parties and said that he was ready to give his full support to the demands of the primary school teachers on their issue.

A memorandum against Sharma by members of UTWA was submitted to Divisional Commissioner Kunwar Vikram Singh yesterday evening demanding strong action into the matter.