Striking Odisha lecturers relent, to join Plus Two evaluation

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Apr 9: 

The 488 and 662 category of Non-Government Aided College lecturers today announced suspension of their agitation and assured the Odisha Government that they will cooperate in the ongoing Plus Two examination answer paper evaluation starting tomorrow.

The decision came after a high level closed-door meeting with Odisha Higher Education Minister Pradeep Panigrahi and Energy Minister Pranab Prakash Das this afternoon.

“Today, we had a cordial meeting with the Higher Education Minister via the Energy Minister. The meeting has been successful and based on that, we have decided to cooperate in the valuation process starting tomorrow. I urge all the lecturers to report to their respective valuation centers,” said Private College Lecturers’ Coordination Committee Secretary Ajay Samal.

“The meeting was successful. The lecturers have agreed to cooperate in evaluation. We would hold another meeting of the inter-ministerial committee headed by the Finance Minister on April 24 to consider their demands. We have already fulfilled some of their demands and have sought some more time to consider others. The future of the students shouldn’t be put to risk over the demands,” said Minister Panigrahi.

Notably, the lecturers have been agitating demanding abolition of block grant system and implementation of full grant-in-aid. Their refusal of cooperation in the answer paper evaluation of the recently concluded Plus Two examination had severely hampered the evaluation exercise that started on April 4.