Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Employees to strike work today

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Action Council of State Employees and Teachers has called for a day’s strike on Monday in protest against the death of James Augustine, headmaster of a lower primary school, in Malappuram district on Saturday.

Activists of the Muslim Youth League allegedly roughed up Augustine at a cluster meeting for teachers’ training at Kizhisseri. They were protesting against the controversial class VII social science textbook.

C.R. Bhanu Prakash, general convener of the council, said in a statement here on Sunday that hospital staff, zoo employees and camp followers had been exempted from the strike.

S.U. Rajeev, general secretary, Kerala Secretariat Employees’ Association, registered protest against the incident, and said the Secretariat staff would join the strike.

J. Prasad, general secretary, Association of Kerala Government College Teachers, demanded stringent action against those responsible for the death. The association would join the strike.

Kottathala Mohanan, chairman, State Employees and Teachers Organisations (SETO), said members of the organisation would boycott work and mourn the death of Augustine.

While compelling the teachers to attend the cluster meetings amid the agitation against the controversial textbook, the State government failed to give them protection. SETO would take out demonstrations against the erratic education policies of the State government in the afternoon.

M.S. Shyam Kumar, president, Kerala NGO Sangh, said the death of Augustine was painful. The government failed to provide protection even after getting information that violence would erupt at the cluster meeting. This was a major lapse.

A. Anil Kumar, general secretary, Federation of Employees and Teachers Organisations, said the government was using the death of Augustine as a façade to give leadership to such violence.

The Centre of India Trade Unions (CITU) State secretariat called for protest demonstrations and meetings all over the State on Monday.

Kerala Congress (J) general secretary Antony Raju said the United Democratic Front leadership, spearheading an agitation against the textbook, should eschew violence and help to maintain peace in the State. The death of Augustine was a shame for the State.

The Private School Teachers’ Association exhorted teachers not to attend classes on Monday as a protest against “the government’s obstinacy that led to the death of James Augustine.”

Association leaders said the government had neglected the warnings, especially in the wake of the widespread problems reported in cluster training meetings on July 18.

The Students’ Federation of India has called for a State-wide ‘education bandh’ on Monday. SFI activists will hold protest marches wearing black badges in all district headquarters, a federation spokesman said here on Sunday.

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