Hyderabad: Congress urges State government to resolve teachers' grievances

Hyderabad: The Congress on Thursday demanded that the State government resolve the grievances of government and private teachers and lecturers struggling with poor finances amid the pandemic.

In an open letter to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, AICC secretary Vamshi Chand Reddy demanded that the Telangana government stand by them and devise policies that can help them support their families. The former MLA held that the Covid-19 induced crisis had worsened the plight of teachers, and added that with no salaries, teachers of private schools and colleges were struggling hard to feed their families and unable to make a decent living.

"Is this how we treat our God-like teachers who are responsible for what we are today?" he questioned and said "on the auspicious occasion of the Teacher's Day (5th September), on behalf of all the teachers and lecturers, I demand the State government to stand by them."

Some of the demands he put forth for government teachers include announcement of PRC and release of interim relief, paying back deducted salary amount (during the lockdown period), announcing promotion to all eligible candidates, initiating transfer process and special permission to pregnant women, blind people, physically handicapped and teachers who were tested positive to Covid-19.

He also demanded relief to private schools, intermediate, degree, and technical colleges teachers and lecturers. Amongst other demands are payment of full salaries during lockdown or else government aid, reinstatement of candidates who were fired, interest-free loans to budget schools, payment to lecturers based on UGC guidelines and release of impending dues of mess charges, tuition fees and fee reimbursement.

"Most importantly, on Teacher's Day, as a mark of respect, every teacher's family should be given Rs 20,000 in the form of Guru Dakshina," he added.