This story is from February 23, 2019

Teachers’ protest takes Gandhinagar by storm

Teachers’ protest takes Gandhinagar by storm
AHMEDABAD: A day after thousands of employees of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) went on strike, over 2 lakh teachers from over 35,000 primary schools from across the state proceeded on mass casual leave and gathered to protest outside the Gujarat Assembly in Gandhinagar on Friday. As many as 1,700 teachers were detained and released late Friday evening.
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Officials of the state education department said almost all primary schools in the state remained closed on Friday because of the teachers’ stir impacting over 60 lakh students.

The massive protest by teachers sent the government officials in a tizzy, who are already struggling to deal with strike by GSRTC employees. Sensing more trouble, the BJP government announced formation of a committee to deal with the issues faced by teachers and the state transport personnel.
The three-member ministerial committee was announced by chief minister Vijay Rupani in Gandhinagar. It comprises of deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, agriculture minister R C Faldu and education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama.
Since Friday early morning, teachers from across Gujarat gathered at the state capital dodging the 2,000-odd policemen who were caught off guard by the sudden influx.
According to teachers, they got divided into small groups and started marching towards the state assembly building from different routes. By the time the cops realised the gravity of the situation thousands of protesters had gathered in front of assembly gates.

Many teachers had arrived in Gandhinagar on Thursday night itself to avoid any conflict with police.
There were reports of scuffles between teachers and policemen when some of the former tried to enter the assembly complex.
Though there were violent scenes and scuffle between the agitating teachers and the police, Gandhinagar SP, Mayur Chavda denied any incident of violence lathicharge on teachers. “We had to forces some teachers inside police vehicle when they tried to gherao the assembly. At least 1,700 of them were detained and later released them in the evening,” Chavda told TOI.
In the afternoon, teachers’ representatives met government committee following which education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama announced that instead of giving exemption from CCC exam, the government had decided to extend the deadline by one more year.
“Issues cannot be resolved by agitation. We had resolved several issues in past by talks. The government is willing to consider other issues too,” Chudasma said.
Digvijaysinh Jadeja, president of the Gujarat Rajya Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, said, “Our main demands include implementation of the old pension scheme, separate grade pay for primary teachers, exemption from compulsory clearing of computer (CCC) exams and consideration of fix-pay service period of five years for determining seniority and promotions.”
Satish Patel, general secretary of the teachers’ association, said “If our demands are not fulfilled, then we would begin a state-wide agitation.”
Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Paresh Dhanani, also spoke in favour of the teachers and met them. He also urged the government to resolved the issues of the teachers.
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