Govt teachers' talks with CM futile, strike continues

DEHRADUN: The 25000 teachers under the banner of Rajkiya Shikshak Sangh who have been on indefinite strike since last week had a meeting till late night on Monday but it proved to be inconclusive and talks are again supposed to be held on Tuesday. The strike has affected 2300 schools in the state but the teachers are refusing to give in till their demands of career progression and 2 assured leaves amongst others are not met.
The teachers have also been garnering support from all over the country by means of social media platforms as well as local political leaders in the state.However the authorities have been trying their best to get the teachers to stop their agitation. Secondary education director, R K Kunwar wrote to the Rajkiya Shikshak Sangh members in an attempt to dissuade them from going on strike. He coaxed the teachers to get back to their jobs for the sake of the students who will suffer if the agitation continues but till now all these attempts have been futile.
Sohan Singh Majila, general secretary of the Rajkiya Shikshak Sangh, told TOI,”The talks with the CM fell through since they refused to meet any of our demands. They kept trying to tell us that we should resume work and in the meantime our demands will be considered but they are just trying to linger. We will continue our agitation till all our demands are not accepted.”
The association has been on relay hunger strike since September 6th after boycotting Teachers’ Day celebrations and currently Ram Singh Chauhan,president of Rajkiya Shiksha Sangh and Shiv Singh Negi from Garhwal Mandal are observing the hunger strike after 2 teachers who were earlier on strike were allegedly removed by police on 4th day of the relay strike . Intensifying the agitation, the teachers went on indefinite strike since September 12th which adversely affected the govt schools in the state.
The other demands of the teachers include regular yearly transfers, transfer act or amendments in the transfer policy to give everyone a chance to serve in hills and plains, expedited promotions, salary hike, grade pay parity between all teachers, assured career progression and to not initiate action against any teacher without thorough investigation.