Teachers threaten to gherao Chief Minister's residence

Bhubaneswar, Nov 22 (UNI) Block Grant Secondary School Teachers&Employees Association today threatened to gherao Naveen Niwas, the residence of Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik if their demands were not met by tomorrow.

Association general secretary Prasant Pati said they had resolved to take the extreme step as the government did not pay any heed to their repeated appeals The teachers, who had locked up more than 1000 schools since November one, held a massive rally here today, demanding the fulfilment of their four-point charter of demands.

Among other things the teachers had been demanding abolition of block grant system, grant-in-aid to all eligible schools, rise in budgetary allocation for education and regular payscale to all school employees.

Mr Pati said the government introduced the block grant system in 2004 under which the teachers and the employees would get minimum Rs 838 and maximum Rs 1103 per month towards their salary.

Initially 1103 high schools set up till June 2000 were covered under the system and later 21 more schools were added to the list.

Mr Pati said salary given to the staff under the scheme was less than the wages of a daily labourer and demanded its abolition.

He said even though the schools have the required infrastructure, good result and student strength equal to any government schools, still they were being discriminated.

UNI