Joint Teachers’ Forum Puts Stir On Hold Till March 9

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha School College Teachers and Employees’ United Forum on Sunday decided to put its 12-day agitation on hold till March 9 after a meeting with the state government.

The Forum took the decision at a Steering Committee meeting after a delegation had a meeting at the State Secretariat here in the morning in the presence of the School and Mass Education Minister Badri Narayan Patra, secretary Pradipta Mohapatra, Higher Education Minister Ananta Das, and Additional Chief Secretary, Higher Education, G VV Sharma.

Talking to newsmen after the meeting, convener of the Forum, Pabitra Mahala said the meeting was cordial. “In the meeting, the government assured us of fulfilling six out of our seven demands and requested us to put the agitation on hold and join the duty for the sake of the future of the students.

“We took the decision to put the agitation on hold till March 9 at the Steering Committee meeting after the meeting with the government,” he added.

Mahala further said the state government has assured the Forum to meet six demands by March 8 through a gazette notification. “If the government fails to meet the deadline, the Forum will resort to statewide agitation from March 9 next,” he pointed out.

“Following our request, the Forum has agreed to put its stir on hold keeping the concern of the students and guardians for the forthcoming annual examinations. The demands of the Forum were discussed at the meeting. The government will have a series of meeting with the Forum,” the School and Mass Education minister told media persons after the meeting with the delegation.

“We told the Forum to withdraw their agitation and ask the teachers to join their duty for successful and smooth conduct of the ensuing annual High School Certificate (HSC) and Plus Two examinations. The government has agreed to meet most of the demands of the Forum after March 9 since the Model Code of Conduct is in force for the ensuing byelection to Bijepur Assembly constituency,” said the Higher Education minister.

“Our demand was withdrawal of affidavit from the Grant-in-Aid (GiA) policy, laying down service conditions, revision of salary as per the recommendation of the 7^th Pay Commission, removal of wall notice, withdrawal of the recent order, extension in service tenure from 60 to 62 and payment of salary for the month June this year which has been held up by the government. Of the seven demands, the government has agreed to meet our six demands while not agreeing to the demand for extension of,” service tenure,” said convener of the Forum, Golakh Nayak.