Even as the State Government on Thursday warned of stripping the striking Block Grant (BG) teachers of their salaries when they are not working and their institutions are shut, the latter seemed in no mood to relent.
Higher Education Minister Badri Narayan Patra warned that since there is provision of no pay for no work, it may well apply to the striking agitating teachers, obviously with an intention to dissuade the thousands of teachers from their prolonged agitation, which reached its 22nd day on Thursday in the latest phase.
Odisha School and College Teachers’ and Employees’ United Forum (OSCTEUF) leader Prakash Mohanty told that they gheraoed all the 147 MLAs on Thursday and apprise them of their concerns. He told that all MLAs, including the BJD’s, have expressed their solidarity with the problems of the teachers.
Mohanty told that the opposition Congress and BJP have promised to raise the Block Grant teachers’ problems in the House on Friday through an adjournment motion for a threadbare discussion on the issue.
Meanwhile, about 4,000 schools and 1,500 colleges across the State remained closed as per the call of the United Forum. The teachers, who are still squatting on the Lower PMG in hundreds after having observed the Teachers’ Day as a Black day on September 5, are also planning to gherao the MLAs on Friday and subsequently take the agitation to the panchayat level.