Teachers protest, parade with their basket of demands

PUNE, Jan 19: The junior college and secondary teachers today organised two separate morchas to lodge their protest against the State Gov...

PUNE, Jan 19: The junior college and secondary teachers today organised two separate morchas to lodge their protest against the State Government’s “indifference” towards their demands.

Nearly 1,200 striking junior college teachers belonging to the Pune district junior college teachers association today gheraoed the deputy director of education (Pune region) V G Joshi and courted arrest at his office. The teachers were protesting against the orders issued by the deputy director’s office to the managements of the junior colleges instructing them to take disciplinary action against the striking teachers.

The protesting teachers damned the State directive and threatened that their agitation would be intensified in case actions were taken against them.

The teachers who courted arrest at the deputy director’s office were released within 15 minutes. They also handed over a memorandum to Joshi expressing their strong protest against the State directive. On the other hand, a strong morcha of more than 7,000 secondary teachers presented a memorandum to the State education director Raghavendra Patil demanding removal of disparities in the notification issued by the State finance department in connection with the payscale for secondary teachers recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission. The teachers under the Pune District Secondary Teachers’ Association protested against cut in salaries of sports, arts, D Ed, Hindi, Sanskrit, music, craft and other teachers.