The education department’s plan to appoint laboratory/office assistants of Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) as Multi Task Staff (MTS) is being opposed by the organisation of these workers.
The contractual RMSA workers are on path of agitation for last so many days as the State Government had decided to terminate their services due to the Central Government’s step of stopping the fund for their salaries.
On their singular demand of reinstatement of their jobs, five members of the association are sitting on a hunger strike at old Raipur bus stand since March 29. The president of the association Gambhir Singh Bisht told The Pioneer that the members are getting feelers from the education department in which an assurance to renew their contract as MTS is being made.
He said the post of MTS belongs to class IV, which is not acceptable to the association. The contractual laboratory/office assistants of RMSA were given a remuneration of `7,590 per month and they were treated at par with class III employees of the department. Bisht said the Education Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani had assured them to adjust them honorably in the department but nothing has happened till date.
On the demand of reinstatement Manoj Bhandari, Yogesh Prasad, Neeraj Kala, Satendra and Nitin are sitting on a hunger strike at protest site. The president of the association said the arbitrary decision of removal by the State Government has put the livelihood of hundreds of people in jeopardy.
He informed that a total of 1,256 office and laboratory assistants were working in different parts of the State from last three and half years and the Government’s decision has forced them to adopt the path of agitation.