Block Grant Teachers To Protest At All Blocks From Tomorrow

Bhubaneswar: Agitating block grant teachers, who are on an indefinite strike at the Mahatma Gandhi Marg here since August 16, on Monday announced their decision to stage protest in all the 314 blocks of Odisha from Tuesday.

“The state government has remained callous towards our demands since the last 26 days. Hence, we have decided to extend our agitation to other parts of the state by holding protests in all blocks for two days from tomorrow. We will come back again to Mahatma Gandhi Marg on September and observe Ganesh Puja here,” convenor of All Odisha School-College Teachers and Employees’ United Forum said.

A number of students and their parents had on Friday 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.

Odisha School and Mass Education Department had on Thursday directed the District Education Officers (DEOs) and Block Education Officers (BEOs) to cut the salaries of teachers, remaining absent without permission or on proper grounds.

In a letter to all the DEOs and BEOs, the department’s Principal Secretary Pradipta Mohapatra, said that unauthorised absence of contractual teachers would be treated as reason for not renewing the annual contract due in March next year. Such teachers would be disengaged after following the due procedure, he added.