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| The agitating teachers in Jamshedpur on Saturday. Picture by Srinivas |
Jamshedpur, June 20: A five-hour dharna by Jharkhand Primary Teachers’ Association, demanding payment of salary, forced the district superintendent of education (DSE) to stay away from his office today while many of his staff fled.
Over 1,000 teachers sat on a dharna from 11am to 4pm and shouted slogans against the DSE for delaying payment of their dues.
Apprehending trouble, DSE Purnand Singh did not turn up at his office near the Jamshedpur Blood Bank in Dhatkidih. Almost all the staff also fled the office as teachers started assembling in large numbers. The Jharkhand Education Project staff also did the disappearing act.
The association’s state general secretary, Nikhil Mandal, alleged that Singh was intentionally delaying payment of their dues. “About 4,000 teachers of East Singhbhum have not been paid their salaries since March. Fixation of the sixth pay commission was done in March but we have not got our salaries yet,” he said.
Mandal said the treasury had stopped their salary and authorities had asked for a new fixation of the sixth pay commission.
“The DSE has been sending us to different government offices for getting our salary cleared but nothing positive has come about. We have decided to apply for the new fixation and also submit our salary books on Monday. Primary teachers are facing extreme hardships for no plausible reason,” he said, adding that the teachers would decide on their next course of action on June 25.
“We will again assemble in front of the DSE’s office to know the progress,” Mandal said, adding payment of salary can be made without any fresh allocation from the finance department.
Senior functionaries from different blocks of the district, including Jamshedpur, Bahragora, Chakulia, Musabani, Dhalbhumgarh, Dumaria, Potka and Patamda, participated in the dharna.
Among them were the association’s district president, Manindranath Pal, the vice-president, Uttam Kumar Das, and the joint secretary, Arun Kumar Singh.
