The deteriorating health of one of the members of the association of office/laboratory assistants employed under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), sitting on an indefinite hunger strike prompted the administration to forcibly lift him, but faced with strong protest from other members of the association, the officials retracted. On the singular demand of reinstatement of their jobs five members of the association are sitting on a hunger strike from March 29.
On Thursday, health of one Damodar Bhatt deteriorated. The district administration dispatched a posse of policemen to forcibly lift him for admission in the hospital. However, the attempt of the administration was foiled by other agitators. later a medical officer examined the health of the fasting members.
The president of the association Gambhir Singh Bisht said that the members of the association are now determined to take their agitation to a logical end. The education department had recently removed 1256 outsource employees as the central government had stopped funding their salaries. The association is demanding that the state government should bear the entire cost of their contractual appointment now. Bisht said that the arbitrary decision of removal by the State Government has put the livelihood of hundreds of people in jeopardy.
He informed that the 1,256 office and laboratory assistants were working in different parts of the State from last three years and the Government’s decision has forced them to adopt the path of agitation. To press for their demand of reinstatement the members of the association has undertaken measures like Buddhi Shuddhi Yagya, Secretariat march and burning of effigies of BJP MPs.