Para-teachers rally in Kolkata, demand pay hike; police stop march to CM residence

Kolkata, Mar 5 (PTI) Hundreds of para-teachers in West Bengal staged a sit-in at College Square here on Thursday after police stopped their march towards Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's residence in Kalighat area as they pressed for a pay hike.

Around 500 members of the 'Parsha Sikshak Oikyo Mancha', a platform of para-teachers in the state, who had started their march from Sealdah station and were heading towards Subodh Mallick Square en route to Kalighat area, were stopped by police at College Square and prevented from proceeding further.

"We were stopped on our way to the CM’s residence as we wanted to hand over a memorandum to her. We have our back to the wall. Para-teachers are being paid Rs 10,000 per month at the primary level, and Rs 13,000 at the upper primary level. We demand that it be raised to at least Rs 20,000-25,000," Mancha convenor Bhagirath Ghosh said.

A police officer said the forum did not have prior permission to take out the rally till Kalighat or Hazra and had not contacted the chief minister’s office for submitting any memorandum.

Ghosh said para-teachers were saddled with a large volume of administrative and academic work in state-aided schools, but their pay parity was grossly unfair in comparison with regular teachers.

During the sit-in demonstration, a woman protester fainted due to stress amid heat and humid conditions and, after initial treatment, was taken to a nearby hospital.

The forum has been continuing a sit-in demonstration before the state education department headquarters, Bikash Bhavan, for the past week to press for the same demands.

Ghosh also demanded that the para-teachers be included in Employees Provident Fund (EPF) as they don't have any gratuity benefits and are not included in any pension scheme.

Thousands of para-teachers in West Bengal, educators engaged on a contractual or part-time basis in schools, have been agitating for better pay and job security.

The agitation intensified after the fallout from the teachers’ recruitment scam linked to the 2016 SSC recruitment test, which led the Supreme Court to invalidate around 26,000 teaching posts last year.

There are over 50,000 para-teachers in the state in over 67,000 primary/upper primary schools. PTI SUS MNB