The involvement of primary teachers in civil construction has allegedly written several ‘deadly’ scripts for teachers in the State. And the latest one was the reported killing of a primary teacher (Md. Rauf) and his son in Giridih district, for their “honest conduct” while undertaking the civil construction works in the school.
Association of primary teachers in State, All Jharkhand Primary Teachers Association (AJPTA) has raised the issue at several occasions. They had pressed the Human Resources Development (HRD) department to free them of civil works. But all they got are just assurances.
These incidents of killing had once again agitated the teachers. According to General Secretary of AJPTA, Ram Murti Thakur the deceased teacher and his son was run over deliberately by the vehicle of chairperson of Village Education Committee of the concerned schools. Because the teacher didn’t allow the VEC and the members to condct the construction works with corruption.
“Teachers had written many letters to the department saying that there was no need of construction of new school building at the schools site and the existing building was enough to accommodate the total number of students. So the money sanctioned for the same should be withdrawn. But the VEC chairperson wanted the money sanction to be used so that he could siphon off some money from it,” alleged the secretary.
The outraged chairman ran over the teacher and his son by his own speeding vehicle.
The agitated teachers have decided to intensify their demands for freeing them from civil construction works and responsibility of arranging mid-day meal.
“We will launch a massive demonstration for it ten days after schools open post summer vacation. We are giving the ten day window period to the department so that they can issue the letter to effect of freeing us from these works. And this time the intensity of our strike would very impact full. We won’t leave Raj Bhawan unless the Governor himself intervene and hands over the letter,” said the secretary.
Earlier in December last year also the AJPTA had gone on strike demanding freeing them from the responsibilities of civil construction works and mid-day meal. During the strike eleven teachers had sat on hunger strike for two days. They had broken their strike after the assurances of the then HRD Secretary BK Tripathy that the department would very soon issue the letter to that effect.But nothing happened thereafter. “This time we won’t relent and stall the resumption of session in schools after the summer vacations. We cannot tolerate teachers being murdered for no fault of theirs,” said ram Murti Thakur.