Odisha: Teachers warn of fresh protest against pledge demand

Bhubaneswar: Over one lakh teachers and employees of various schools and colleges across Odisha will resume an indefinite protest from August 16 demanding regularisation of their jobs and withdrawal of the affidavit clause prescribed in the Grant-in-Aid (GIA) Policy-2017.

Members of the Odisha School College Teachers’ and Employees United Forum (OSCTEUF) today announced they would not leave Bhubaneswar unless the State government withdraws the controversial notification.

“The government is secretly planning not to regularise the jobs of teachers who have already served more than 25 years. This time, it is ‘do or die’ for us and we have decided that not to return from Bhubaneswar until the government fulfils our all demands,” said Golak Nayak, convenor of OSCTEUF.

The State has been divided into four zones and over one lakh school and college teachers will sit on a massive protest at the Lower PMG Square in the capital city in order to put pressure on the government, he warned.

The teachers had been demanding the withdrawal of a controversial affidavit clause prescribed in the Grant-in-Aid (GIA) Policy – 2017, and fulfilment of a six-point charter of demands including grand-in-aid for all.

Speaking about their demands, Nayak said: “The government should issue a notification for withdrawal of that controversial affidavit, provide grant-in-aid to all schools and colleges, clear the arrear salary, service conditions to all, implementation of the seventh pay commission and retirement benefits.”

This time, we are not going to negotiate with the government until they met all of our demands, he vowed.

The government had, however, refused to withdraw the controversial affidavit clause in which the teachers and employees have to declare they will not move to court or stage protest against the government in future. The teachers will also have to withdraw all pending cases against the government to get the benefits of grant-in-aid, sources said.