Teachers to contest polls

Guwahati, Feb. 15 : Teachers and employees of the 17,000-odd non-provincialised educational institutions in Assam will stage a unique protest against alleged government indifference to their plight. They have decided to field 2,000 candidates in each of the 14 Lok Sabha seats to influence the outcome of the results and create public awareness about their problems.

A senior member of the Assam Sikshak Karmachari Aikya Mancha, which has around 1.5 lakh members, told The Telegraph that work has already started at the block levels to identify the candidates.

“A final decision would be taken on February 18 when its members will lay siege to the chief minister’s residence at Koinadhara,” he said.

“If the government doesn’t pay heed even after that then we are surely going ahead with our plan to field our members as candidates who have decided to raise their own funds for the contest. Our executive has decided to publish the list of candidates in the media after the protest programme if we do not get any kind of satisfactory and formal response from the chief minister.

“The whole idea is to leave a deep impact through this democratic exercise,” the office-bearer said. “We expect about 30,000 members from across the state to participate in the gherao programme on February 18,” he added.

On January 28, the Mancha, which has eight organisations under its fold, had called a 24-hour statewide bandh, which affected normal life in some pockets but the government has remained indifferent to their demands. They had earlier also gheraoed Raj Bhavan but got nothing more than assurances.

The Mancha is seeking, among others, provincialisation of the non-provincialised institutions, including 9,000 primary schools, 5,000 Middle English schools, 1,825 high schools, 186 higher secondary schools, 131 junior college, 147 degree colleges, 634 madarsas and 16 Sanskrit tols.

“The governor had got the status report from the education department and assured provincialisation depending on the availability of funds. We also met the education minister and the chief minister, but things have not moved beyond assurances,” the office bearer said.