Teacher unions call for boycotting govt plantation survey

Nagpur: Some teachers in Bhandara and Chandrapur district are furious on being ‘asked’ to count saplings/trees planted in villages under a social forestry scheme. Considering the already long list of non-academic work which teachers are engaged in, this new assignment has clearly not gone down well with the teaching fraternity.
Not wanting to be identified, one of the teachers from Bhandara told TOI that the local education office was pressuring them to take up the survey task on Sunday.“Though the plantation survey is not mandatory, the way we are being asked to do it is almost making it sound like that,” the teacher said. The teacher added that his orders had come from the Block Development Officer (BDO). The BDO is in charge of schools and staff at the taluka level. Under each BDO there are anywhere between 25 to 150 villages.
Manjusha Thaokar is one of the BDOs in Bhandara who ‘asked’ teachers to take part in the plantation survey. She, however, refuted charges of ‘forcing’ teachers to conduct the survey. “It’s not as if I am acting on my own and issuing illegal orders. The plantation survey is a state government initiative and an order had come through the planning department. The tree/sapling plantation had been done through gram panchayat and the task is just to survey the plantations. The other thing is that participation in this survey is totally optional. Teachers may take part in this on Sunday and they shall be paid remuneration through NREGA scheme. Under my jurisdiction there are about 32 villages which will be involved in this survey and no one is being forced to do anything,” Thaokar told TOI.
Teacher unions have asked their members to boycott the plantation survey as it ‘demeans’ their fraternity. Senior teacher union leader and city MLC NG Ganar, said, “Similar orders are being given to teachers in Chandrapur as well. Teachers are being treated as mules to do all the unwanted work of the state. Though the task is optional we all know how in rural areas the education officials rule with an iron fist. They will arm-twist our teachers to do this work which actually should be done by the forest department. Just goes to show that there is no respect for teachers and the work we do in schools. We have told all our members to boycott this survey and file a complaint if they are being forced to do it.”