The members of association of Government school guest teachers organised a march towards the Chief Minister’s residence on Thursday. The members of the association assembled at the protest site near the Parade Ground in afternoon and started the march towards the CM ‘s residence as per their earlier declared plan.
A big posse of policemen however thwarted their plan as they prevented the agitated guest teachers near state secretariat. The members of the association tried to get past the heavy police bandobast and had a skirmish with it in this effort.In view of the huge number of the agitators the police has made adequate measures and foiled all their attempts to cross the barricades. Some women protesters collapsed due to the pushing and jostling. The agitators later squatted at the site and started shouting slogans against the state government. “While the whole world is celebrating the festival of Janmashtami, we are protesting for our rights and facing hardships. We would continue our struggle till the government accepts our demands,’’ said one of a women protester who had come from Pauri to attend the agitation. At the time of filing this story a delegation of the guest teachers waiting for a meeting with the state Chief Minister.The education department had employed 6214 guest teachers on purely temporary basis against the vacant posts of lecturers and lecturer Teachers (lT) in the government schools last year. OnMarch 31 this year the department terminated their contract following which these teachers started an agitation. Education Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani even sat on a hunger strike in support of the agitating guest teachers during the President’s rule. When the Congress government was restored in the state, it passed a GO for reinstatement of these teachers. This GO was contested in the court which rendered the entire process of recruitment of guest teachers as unconstitutional.