TUPTA's talks with Govt fail
The Trained Unemployed Physical Teachers' Association (TUPTA) started a fast unto death at the Old Raipur bus stand on Tuesday after their talks with the Government failed. Earlier in the day, the members of TUPTA took out a march to the State Secretariat in support of their demand for creation of a post of Physical education teacher in the Government schools of the State.
The members of the association gathered at the old Raipur Bus stand near parade ground in the morning and started the march towards the Secretariat. The police stopped the march in front of the Secretariat where a delegation of the association was invited for talks by the Principal Secretary S Raju. The meeting, however, failed to convince the trained physical education unemployed graduates and they decided to start a fast unto death. Five members of the association, Girish Chandra, Suresh Kumar, Sanjay Singh, Mannu Singh and Vijendra started the indefinite fast in afternoon.
The State Patron of the association Devendra Koranga told The Pioneer that the delegation which went to talks with the Principal Secretary was shocked to realize that the government is not serious on the demands of the TUPTA. He said that Raju feigned ignorance of the Chief Minister Harish Rawat's assurance of creating post of 5000 physical education teachers.
Koranga said that it appears that the State Government is only intending to recruit physical education teachers by adopting the method of outsourcing. He informed that the association is waging a long struggle against outsourcing and has decided to start an indefinite hunger strike to press for their demands. The TUPTA is demanding that the State Government should make permanent appointments of physical education teachers in all the Primary and middle schools of the State without the restriction of student number.
The other demands of these unemployed physical education teachers are release of recruitment advertisement for 10,000 posts, appointments in the upgraded schools under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and creation of post of lecturer physical education in the Government Inter Colleges (GIC) of State. The members of the association are on a marathon sit in at the old Raipur bus stand. On Tuesday, the agitation of the association entered the 387th day.