School teachers in Orissa to sit in dharna

Sambalpur, Mar 15(UNI) Thousands of taken-over high schools teachers in Orissa have threatened to sit on dharna tomorrow to protest the "injustice" in the postings of head masters.

The teachers, affiliated to the Orissa Secondary School Teachers' Association (OSSTA), would stage the dharna in front of the office of the Director of Secondary Education at Bhubaneswar.

OSSTA President Ajit Kumar Das told newspersons here that the teachers had no alternative but to resort to the agitational path as the State Government had defied all laws of the land and even specific orders from full bench of Orissa High Court.

The High Court, he claimed, had ordered that seniority should be counted for promotion of the trained graduate teachers to the post of headmaster.

"The senior trained graduate teachers of 2,929 schools of the taken-over schools in 1994 have been deprived of their legitimate rights for getting promotion to the post of headmaster, he said.

The OSSTA President said a cadre rule was in force for the teachers before 1994. A full bench of Orissa high court also directed the State Government to stick to that rule, for the teachers of the taken-over high schools.

In December 2002, all the teachers of the taken-over schools were treated as government teachers. In December 2004 a list of the common cadre for teachers of the government and taken-over schools was published where the service period of the taken over school teachers was reduced to 50 per cent.

Mr Das said such a faulty decision not only violated the Orissa Education manual but also the orders of the high court. He said a meeting was held on demands of different teachers' organisations in August 2004. He said an agreement was signed in this regard which was violated by the government.

During June 2005, the government after a discussion with teachers' organisations, had decided to recast the cadre list prepared in 2004 and nearly 2,272 teachers were selected for Headmaster on the basis of seniority which was later approved by the General Administration (GA) department.

But the directorate again tried to change the list of these 2,272 teachers also without any reason violating all guidelines, Mr Das alleged.

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