Citing glaring shortcomings in the Government Order (GO) issued on Monday, the agitating guest teachers are continuing to camp at the protest site in large numbers.
Meanwhile former Education Minister, Mantri Prasad Naithani also continued his 48 hour long fast in support of guest teachers at Kanak Chowk on the day. The guest teachers had a long discussion over the pro and cons of the GO which they received on late Monday night.
In the GO the Government had accepted their demand of the abolishing the new recruitment advertisement of guest teachers and decided that guest teachers selected last year would continue to work against the vacant posts.
later it was decided by the association that Government should clear its stand on re-appointment of all 6214 candidates. The general secretary of the guest teachers association Harish Arya said that the GO is silent on the reappointment of all the candidates.
On Monday, large number of the guest teachers from all parts of the state converged at the protest site for the secretariat march. The march proceeded from the protest site but a large deployment of security forces stopped them when they reached Kanak Chowk.
To prevent any untoward incident the authorities had deployed Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel along with local police. The agitators squatted at Kanak Chowk and started a meeting. later a five member delegation of guest teachers met the Director General (DG) of school education, D Senthil Pandian.
The DG assured them that Rs 15,000 per month would be paid to them and asked them to wait till May 15 as number of vacant posts would be clear by then but the standoff continued on number of reinstatement with the department insisting that candidates would be appointed in vacant posts only.
The DG reportedly assured the agitators that interest of all the guest teachers would be safeguarded. At the time of filing this story discussions were going on among the guest teachers at the agitation site to decide future course of action in wake of new assurances.
Earlier in the day, Congress leader Anand Rawat also arrived at the site of agitation and assured his support to them. He said that the demand of the guest teachers is justified as large number of posts of teachers is vacant in government schools of the state. Former education Minister Naithani told The Pioneer that guest teachers have done a commendable work of creating a good environment of teaching in the Government schools.