Teachers gherao residence of Odisha minister, five arrested

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Feb 8:

Commissionerate police today arrested five Block Grant teachers who were staging a protest in front of School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra’s residence in Odisha capital.

teachers gherao

Shouting slogans, scores of agitating Block Grant teachers this morning gheraoed the residence of School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra demanding abolition of Block Brant system and regularisation of their jobs. Besides, they demanded release of the 38 arrested teachers.

Over 25, 000 Block Grant teachers in as many as 2608 schools are working at a very low remuneration for which they are demanding implementation of grant-in-aid policy.

“They had assured us to fulfil our demands but failed to do so. We have elected them as our representatives to address our concerns. We want grant-in-aid to be implemented,” a protesting teacher said.

It may be recalled that scores of teachers were lathicharged in the capital city when they were on their way to gherao Naveen Niwas, residence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, on Friday. The teachers allegedly broke the security cordon and clashed with the police. As many as 38 Block Grant teachers were arrested and forwarded to court on Saturday.

Protesting against the attack and subsequent arrests, the teachers on Saturday gheraoed the residences of seven ministers– Finance Minister Pradeep Amat, Employment, Technical Education & Training Minister Sanjay Kumar Das Burma, School & Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra, Energy & Information Technology Minister Pranab Prakash Das, Panchayati Raj & Law Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh and Information & Public Relations Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, who are members of the inter-ministerial committee looking into the demands of the teachers.

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