Shiksha acharyas’ protest march foiled

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, October 24

Members of the Shiksha Acharya Sangathan tried to take out a protest march towards the Chief Minister’s residence in support of their demands which was foiled by the police here on Monday.

The protesters were demanding to merge 910 shiksha acharyas with shiksha mitra in government schools. They alleged that the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Applied Innovation Exchange (AIE) centres opened by the government under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan were shut down without any reasons. Due to this, hundreds of shiksha acharyas had rendered unemployed and now it was the responsibility of the state government to ensure reemployment of sacked workers in other education departments.

Shiksha acharyas, who gathered at Parade Ground to march towards Chief Minister’s residence were stopped by the police at Kanak Chowk after which they sat on a dharna on the spot and continued their protest.

Devendra Bisht, state president of the Shiksha Acharya Sangathan, stated, “The government has fooled us by making false promises, but this time we will not call off the protest until our demands will get fulfilled. Shiksha acharyas are well-trained professionals and the government has to merge us with shiksha mitra.”

Puran Singh Rana, Dinesh Kumar, Sanjay Singh, Vipin Sharma, Shageer Ahmad and Mahesh Chandra were among the protesters.