Karnataka - Bijapur   

Teachers of private institution launch fast in Bijapur

Staff Correspondent

They have been working without salary for past seven years

BIJAPUR: Nearly 200 teachers of Shri Jagadamba Vidyavardhak Sangh (SJVS), a private institution running several aided and non-aided schools in Bijapur and Gulburga districts, who have been working without salary for the past seven years, have threatened to commit self-immolation in Bijapur on Tuesday if the Government "fails" to fulfil their demands by then.

The agitators, who initially staged a relay hunger strike, launched a fast on Saturday. They have decided to commit self-immolation when Minister for Primary and Secondary Education

Basavaraj Horatti visits Bijapur on Tuesday. Mr. Horatti is scheduled to take part in the physical education teachers' meeting and primary school teachers' conference.

According to J.D. Choudhary, honourary president of Karnataka State Private School Teachers' Association, the Government had stopped payment of salary to 196 teachers working in various primary schools run by the SJVS on the ground that their appointment had been done without prior sanction for the post. These teachers had been receiving salary from the Government since their appointment till 1998. The inquiry conducted into the alleged irregularities during 2000 revealed that several officers of the department connived with the management in the recruitment.

However, all the teachers appointed had the required qualification and they could not be made scapegoat for the irregularities committed by the management and officers, he said.

Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, the police took the agitators into custody. However, the police were not able to take all of them into custody till late in the evening. Security would be tightened to ensure that the agitators did not resort to any extreme step, sources said.

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Teachers of private institution launch fast in Bijapur

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