Block Grant Teachers’ Strike At Panchayat Level From Tomorrow

Bhubaneswar: The agitating block grant teachers on Sunday announced their decision to extend the ongoing agitation to panchayat level.

“We have decided to intensify the strike and move to all panchayats of the state tomorrow and hold rallies to sensitise the students and parents about the government’s apathy towards us,” said convenor of Odisha School-College Teachers and Employees’ Forum Golak Nayak.

The teachers’ agitation entered 32^nd day on Sunday. “We will continue the stir till our demands including removal of affidavit clause in the newly-announced grant-in-aid system, equal salary for equal work, provision of full aid and service conditions, are met,” Nayak added.

The agitators had celebrated Ganesh Puja and Nuakhai on the streets of Mahatma Gandhi Marg here on September 13 and 14 respectively.

Five days ago, the block grant teachers had also staged protests in all the 314 blocks of the state.

A number of students and their parents had on September 7 opposed the block grant teachers’ means of protest of locking up nearly 500 schools across Odisha.

Students of different schools in Bhadrak, Deogarh and Bargarh districts had condemned the locking up of the schools by the agitating teachers without considering their future.