SILCHAR, Sept 6 - On the occasion of the 54th Teachers� Day when the Cachar district administration was felicitating academicians for their contribution at the District Library auditorium here on Saturday, over 200 bare-chested teachers staged a protest outside the auditorium demanding provincialisation of their respective schools.
Surajit Mishra, secretary of the All Cachar Non-Provincialised LP/UP/MEM Teachers Association, expressed dissatisfaction on the attitude of the government in granting provincialisation to the schools for the past many years. He said as per the Assam Venture Schools Provincialisation Act 2011, the ME schools must have government permission and recognition in order to get provincialised.
However, in 2012, there was an amendment to this Act and it was conveyed that only the schools with the DISE code of 2009-2010 shall be provincialised and that the period post-recognition for those schools must be at least 10 years.
Mishra said that the period was reduced to seven years after another amendment to the Act in 2014. Later it was sent back from the finance committee of the government for reasons best known to the authorities. �It is a clear case of absolute apathy on the part of the government to deprive the teachers.
There are 2,224 LP, ME and MEM schools in Assam and Cachar has 150 of them. Similar is the story with the teachers under the All Assam Recognised ME and MEM Teachers Association. If our demands are not responded, we will even stage a �naked protest� in Guwahati and other places of the State,� he said.
