Police on Monday foiled Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers’ secretariat gherao program at city centre Lal Chowk here in which at least 10 teachers suffered injuries while over a dozen were detained. Reports said that hundreds of SSA teachers assembled at Partap Park and staged anti-government protests for not releasing their salaries for the last three months.
The protesters raised slogans in favour of their demands and said that government has not released their salaries for the last three months causing immense hardships to them. Police resorted to cane charging and used water cannons after the protesters teachers tried to march towards the civil secretariat. Dozens of them were bundled in police vehicles and lodged at Kothi Bagh police station. The teachers were protesting against the inordinate delay by the government in de-linking SSA teachers’ salary from funds received from the government of India.
Pertinently, the salary of Rehbar-e-Taleem teachers (ReT) recruited under SSA scheme is pending from over three months. “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is a scheme sponsored by the government of India. We are nearly 45,000 teachers in Jammu and Kashmir who are working under this scheme. We demand the state government should release our salaries of past three months and arrears,” the SSA teachers said adding, “If the government is talking about improving standards of education in the state, why are they doing injustice with us?” The protesters appealed the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to intervene into the matter.
