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Bid to crush stir by teachers: Jamuna

Staff Correspondent

`Government has appointed a panel on the issue'

BHOPALNEW DELHI: As the stalemate continued on Thursday over the teachers' demand for "equal pay for equal work", the Leader of Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, Jamuna Devi, lashed out at the BJP-led State Government saying that it was trying to crush the teachers' peaceful and democratic agitation.

An official spokesman said the State Government had taken into consideration the teachers' demands and also appointed a committee to study their demands and make recommendations. He said Chief Minister Babulal Gaur was prepared to meet the teachers on Wednesday but matters went out of hand after it was announced by the teachers that even the Chief Minister was with them and he was going to join their rally. The State Government has taken a firm stand that the teachers should resume duty and call off their agitation.

Ms. Jamuna Devi, who was arrested and released on Wednesday while leading a procession by teachers, was addressing a press conference at her residence on Thursday. As she addressed the journalists, a large number of teachers sat at her residence for the second consecutive day. She said that confronted with injustice, the teachers had sought shelter at her residence.

She said the police had crossed all limits on Wednesday by entering her house and arresting the teachers who had come to her to narrate their woes from different parts of the State. She told journalists that the teachers "have even started committing suicide" since the State Government had become totally insensitive to their demands.

Hold talks, says CPI (M) Special Correspondent

BHOPALNEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has demanded that the Madhya Pradesh Government hold negotiations with teachers and immediately release those arrested and accept their genuine demands.

Condemning the State Government for embarking on a confrontationist path, the party Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said in a statement that over 8000 Shikshak Karmis (teachers) were merely demanding that the law of the land -- equal pay for equal work -- be implemented. He said there were reports that the Government arrested thousands in Bhopal after a brutal lathi-charge.

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Bid to crush stir by teachers: Jamuna

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