Not all is easy on the eastern front. Eighteen months or so away from the state assembly polls in 2021, 10-15,000 teachers will today participate t in the protest against the Mamata Banerjee led state government. This was announced by a member of West Bengal College and University Teachers’ Association on Monday, reported The Telegraph.
Through this strike, classes in over 500 colleges and at least six universities could be affected on Tuesday as teachers have called a cease work to protest the government’s decision to hike salaries from January 2020 instead of January 2016.The West Bengal College and University Teachers’ Association (WBCUTA) has given the cease work call and approximately 10,000 teachers will take part in the protest, said a member of the teachers’ body.
Keshab Bhattacharya, general secretary of the Left-backed teachers’ body, said they were forced to call the cease work because their appeal to the state government to implement the revised pay scale from January 2016 had fallen on deaf ears.
The Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association will observe the cease work both on November 19 and 20. “An assistant professor (at the starting level) would miss out on Rs 6.4 lakh for four years,” said Partha Pratim Ray, the general secretary of the association.
Repeated calls to education minister Partha Chatterjee by the Telegraph went unanswered. He did not respond to the text messages either.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on November 5 had announced that college and university teachers would be paid according to the seventh central pay commission’s recommendations from January next year instead of January 2016.