A policeman chases away a protesting teacher near Sishu Bhawan, Bhubaneswar, Friday. pic Manoranjan Mishra
Bhubaneswar: Agitating block grant teachers Friday felt the weight of the law enforcement forces with commissionerate police using batons to disperse them as they were on their way to Naveen Niwas to press for the fulfillment of their nine-point charter of demands, including full grant-in-aid.
The agitating teachers moved along a couple of lanes and by-lanes from Lower PMG Square towards Naveen Niwas, but were stopped by commissionerate police from moving ahead of Sishu Bhawan Square. Several teachers were detained by police.
Some of the teachers reportedly sustained injuries during the face-off with police and are being treated at Capital Hospital here.
Police officials said they resorted to baton charge as the teachers paid no heed to their warning that they should not break the cordons in the area. A police officer also alleged that the teachers had started pelting stones at them.
“We had urged the block grant teachers not to violate rules,” Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi said.
The agitation brought vehicular movement on the A policeman chases away a protesting teacher near Sishu Bhawan, Bhubaneswar, Friday. pic manoranjan mishra stretch to a grinding halt.
Earlier in the day, more than 35,000 block grant secondary school teachers and employees from 2,608 schools started an indefinite strike here against the education department.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had September 27, 2015, assured the teachers that the government would fulfill their demands, but nothing has been in this regard so far, said the general secretary of the Block Grant Teachers’ Association, Prashant Kumar Mohapatra.
“We are working without regular payscale, leave benefits and social security. Our association had brought this to the notice of the education department and we had also informed them about our strike. However, the department did not respond. So we decided to go on strike demanding uniformity in salary of teachers and Class IV employees of high schools,” said the vice-president of the All Orissa Block Grant Secondary School Teachers and Employee Association (AOBTEA), Padmacharan Pradhan.
“The department also did not make any appointments to fill up vacancies in most of the schools. Thus, our work load is very high,” said AOBTEA’s Raygada district secretary Ashok Kumar Lenka.
“We had a discussion with a committee of seven ministers and five secretaries. However, there was no consensus at the meeting. As such, this strike was unavoidable,” said Pradhan. PNN
