Para-teachers in West Bengal staged a sit-in for five hours on Tuesday over demand for a pay hike and jostled with police personnel during the protest near the state education department headquarters here.
Around 500 members of the ‘Sangrami Sikshak Mancha’, a platform of para-teachers in the state, took out a march from Karunamoyee in Salt Lake area and were stopped from heading towards the Bikash Bhavan, the state education department headquarters.
The protesting para-teachers were seen jostling with the police personnel and then sitting on the road demanding an audience with state Education Minister Bratya Basu, but were told the minister was not keeping well.
A six-member delegation of the platform later went to Bikash Bhavan to meet Principal Secretary of Education Binod Kumar to discuss the demands while others continued to sit on the road. After around five hours, they left.
“At the meeting, apart from increasing our wages and PF, gratuity benefits, we demanded relief from election and SIR duties. If we are not considered as regular state government employees, why should we be saddled with election duties on par with state government teachers and other employees,” a member of the delegation said.
He said para-teachers were being paid between ₹9,000 and ₹10,000 per month.
“We demand that it be raised to at least ₹15,000. The ₹1,000 hike in the state’s vote on account is meagre.”
There are over 50,000 para-teachers in the state in over 67,000 primary and upper primary schools.
