A six-member delegation of Shiksha Mitras under the banner of ‘Shiksha Mitra Joint Action committee’ will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the DlW guest house in Varanasi on Friday evening. The PM is coming to his lok Sabha constituency for a day-long visit to inaugurate the integrated power development scheme and lay the foundation of the ring road for the holy city.
There was no report of any untoward incident from any part of the State. Tight security arrangements have been made for PM’s visit and we are fully prepared to foil any such attempts from the agitating Shiksha Mitras that would lead in law and order crisis here, police officers said.
The district officials also said that the Prime Minister will address the public at the DlW grounds here, while the Multipurpose ground in Cantonment area will be restricted to a private audience.
Only those people will get entry to the Multipurpose ground, who have been issued passes as the ground is less spacious. The PM will distribute rickshaw, e-rickshaw, solar lamps and other items to selected beneficiaries at the Multipurpose ground on his one-day visit.
Jitendra Shahi, one of the member of the delegation said all the six members reached Varanasi and got the passes issued by the PMO.
While a rival organisation of Shiksha Mitra led by Gazi Imam said thousands of sacked teachers have reached Varanasi and they would gherao the Prime Minister on Friday.
Jitendra Shahi said their sole demand from the PM is to abolish the requirement of passing the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) for the appointment of assistant teacher in the State-run primary schools.
“This can be done only with the intervention of the Center as fixing the minimum qualification for the assistant teachers in primary schools is the sole discretion of the National Council of teachers education (NCTE)’’, said Shahi.
The NCTE was set up during the UPA regime after the enactment of the RTE by the Parliament.
He said that they have given a firm assurance to the district administration of Varanasi that there will be no big gathering of the Shiksha MItra at the venue of the Prime Ministers programme in Varanasi.
“We will maintain the dignity of the Prime Minister and the teachers and only the delegation of six members will meet him at Varanasi on Friday’’, said Jitendra Shahi.
He alleged that the Shiksha mitras were appointed as the assistant teacher by UP Government in the primary schools as per the suggestion by the NCTE, which said that they can be appointed as assistant teachers after they are imparted two years training at the District institute of education and training (DIET).