A separate group of para teachers on Monday staged a protest in front of the Jharkhand Education Project Council office over non-payment of salaries for the past 22 months. The Para teachers group claimed that there are around three thousand untrained para-teachers across the State, who have not received salaries for the past 22 months.
The teachers union raising slogans against the State government demanded payment of salaries. Para teachers from Chhatarpur and Naudiha of Palamu, and some districts of Santhal Pargana were involved in the dharna.
The dharna was staged by Jharkhand Trained Para Teachers Association headed by Sheikh Siddiq.
Meanwhile, the association of three para teachers group—Ekikrit Para Shikshak Sangh have decided to postpone their agitation on the appeal of State Education Minister Jagannath Mahto to call off their agitation.
The Education Minister who recently had lung transplant on Sunday appealed to the agitating Para teachers to postpone their agitation for time being.
The minister who is at present at Chennai also assured the Para teachers to take up their issue once he returns from Chennai. The para teachers group headed by Vinod Bihari Mahto, Sanjay Dubey and Hrikesh Pathak has called off their agitation.
Ekikrit Para Shikshak Sangh, president Sanjay Dubey said, “On the assurance of Education Minister Jagannath Mahto to take up our demands once he returns to Ranchi the teachers union have decided to postpone the agitation. We have also decided to call off our plan to stage dharna at the Chief Minister’s residence on February 10.”
The member of Ekikrit Para Shikshak Sangh will meet Education Minister Mahto once he returns to Ranchi. The Sangh will decide the future course of action after meeting the Education Minister.
It may be noted that para teachers have decided to stage phase wise agitation in support of their demands.
The para teachers as part of agitation have decided to stage gherao outside ruling party legislators.
The para teachers main demand are service regularization and pay scale of Rs 5,200-20.200 with a grade pay of Rs 2000 to Rs 2400. The para teachers have been demanding pay fixation and regularization for more than decades.
On June last year, in the meeting between state education minister Jagannath Mahto and members of Ekikrit Para Sikshak Sangharsh Morcha (EPSSM) it was decided that para teachers will get a pay scale of Rs 5,200-20,200 with a grade pay of Rs 2000 to Rs 2400. In the meeting it was also decided that those para teachers who have cleared the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) examination will get pay scale, but those who have not cleared the TET, the education department will conduct proficiency tests for such teachers.