Assistant Teachers under the banner of Jharkhand Trained Assistant Teachers Association (JTATA) are staging a one-day strike outside the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) office in the State Capital on Tuesday. During this, para teachers raised slogans loudly and they were demanding to fulfill the pay scale promised by Chief Minister, Hemant Soren before the State Assembly elections.
The protesting Assistant Teachers were going to stage a protest inside the JMM office but when they went inside for talks, they were thrown out from the office. After which the teachers sat on strike outside the party office. Earlier, on October 2, on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, Para teachers were sitting on a hunger strike outside of the State Congress headquarter in the State Capital.
The protesting assistant teachers said that before the elections, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's current CM, Hemant Soren had promised that on the lines of Bihar, the Assistant Teachers would get the pay scale and the status of State employee under equal pay for equal work. “EPF benefits were promised to the Assistant Teachers but even after 4 years of Hemant's tenure, the promise was not fulfilled,” they added.
While talking to media persons on the issue, JMM General Secretary and Coordination Committee Member, Vinod Pandey on the issue , said that he was not aware of it. Pandey said that if someone goes to someone's office in a group without permission, the police will definitely ask them to go out. He further said that five Assistant Teachers were called for talks on the issue but they did not come. He further said that sloganeering and dharna in front of any party office is not appropriate at all.
There are approximately 62000 Assistant Teachers working in Jharkhand. The Assistant Teachers hold protests and agitations every day for their demands but their problems have not been solved yet. Former Education Minister, Late Jagannath Mahato had made rules in 2021 and changed the name of Para Teacher to Assistant Teacher. Mahato had promised to provide honorarium increase, honorarium equivalent to the pay scale, provident fund and other facilities but even after 21 months of implementation of the rules, no initiative was taken on this by the State Government and the concerned department.
The protesting Teachers said that the government is playing tricks on the Teachers. At present the education department is with Chief Minister Hemant Soren.