Utkal Reporter Bureau
Bhubaneswar|24 August 2017
Odisha goverment, on Thursday, talked with the on-strike teachers of block grant schools and colleges but it led to nowhere. The teachers stood strong enough to relent from their prime demand-uniform remuneration and service condition at par with the government teachers.
The meeting btween representative of Odisha Shool College Teachers and Employees’ Association and the Odisha government went on for one and half hour before the members of the association came out to say, “The meeting has failed.” However Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi from government side said that there would be another around of meeting on Monday.
The teachers’ representative presented their demand for hundred percent aid to all teachers working in the government aided schools and colleges irrespective of their categories. But the government side could promise nothing other than the previous offers thus failed to convince the teachers.
The meeting held in the chamber of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi had Higher Education Minister Anant Das, Secretary to the department of Higher Education, Development Commissioner R. Krishnamurthy, Finance Secretary T.K Pandey and two former Ministers in the Odisha government Pranab Prakash Das and Arun Sahu from the government side. A four member team comprising Prakash Chandra Mohanty, Pabitra Mahala, Golak Nayak and Prakash Chandra Jena represented the Odisha School and College Teachers and Employees’ Association in the meeting.
After the talk failed the teachers warned to intensify their strike.” We will graduate the strike to a statewide trachers’ agitation. We will not yield till our demands are met.” Said Pabitra Mahala
Nearly sixty thousand teachers and employees of four thousand non-government schools and colleges in Odisha are on an indefinite strike since August 16 leaving the educational activities there in shamble.
Thousands of the teachers have perched themselves on the road day in day out in front of the state assembly since then braving against the climatic challenges in this rainy season.
These non government schools and colleges carry nearly 80 percent of the teaching responsibility of the state. But the staffs in the system get a wholesome amount as remuneration sans any dearness allowance and service conditions significantly less in comparison with their government counterparts.
The teachers have taken to street for their demands quita a few times earlier but every time the government has come up with a designed formula to persuade them to retreat.
Leave a Reply