Agitating guest teachers to go on hunger strike in Uttarakhand
Over 1,000 guest teachers braved the winter chill and spent the Monday night outside the Secretariat here as part of their ongoing agitation over the regularisation of their jobs.
The guest teachers, who have been protesting close to a month now, have made the Secretariat their base and are refusing to shift from there till their demands are met. They were demanding ad-hoc recruitment in schools, and have said that they will not call-off their stir until they get written assurances from the Uttarakhand government.
Escalating the protest, the teachers are now going to sit on hunger strike beginning Monday.
Lalit Dangwal, president of the guest teachers association, said: “We have been fighting for some kind of recognition since March 2016. But, it seems, the government is not interested in our demands.
“We are not asking for something extraordinary, but only want to secure a safe future. We will not move from here till the government fulfills our demand. We will also start hunger strike.”
On January 28, the hill state’s government had directed the secondary education department to re-appoint the guest teachers in the cadre of assistant teacher LT Grade for which an advertisement was issued.
However, the Uttarakhand high court on July 27 directed the state government to withdraw the January 28 notification on re-appointment of the guest teachers— who are about 6,200. The order came as a blow to the teachers, who are without jobs since March 31 when the education department had scrapped their contracts.
