There was a stir at the Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) office in Muzaffarnagar district of western Uttar Pradesh late on Tuesday night when Uttar Pradesh Government Minister of State Kapil Dev Aggarwal suddenly reached among the teachers sitting on strike. The minister reached the protest site at around 12 o’clock in the night, listened to the problems of the teachers and expressed strong displeasure over the working style of BSA Sandeep Kumar. He called the District Magistrate (DM) from the spot and gave instructions to investigate the entire incident and take strict action against BSA.
According to the information, hundreds of teachers had reached the office of BSA Sandeep Kumar at around 3:30 pm on Tuesday (February 24) to submit a memorandum regarding the suspension of an education review and other departmental problems. Teachers allege that BSA neither met them nor took their memorandum. At 6 pm the officers and employees closed their offices and left from there. Angered by this attitude of the officers, the teachers remained on strike in the office premises even at night.
‘BSA office has become an arena of controversies’
As soon as the information about teachers’ strike was received at night, Minister of State Kapil Dev Aggarwal himself reached among them. He said that teachers are the people of their area and do important work in shaping the future of children, hence ignoring them cannot be tolerated. Giving a sharp reaction while talking to the media, the Minister said that the BSA office becomes an arena of controversies and fights every day, due to which the image of both the department and the government is being tarnished. He said that it is the responsibility of the officer to improve the system, but the BSA here is proving to be a complete failure in fulfilling this responsibility.
Teachers bluntly: ‘Our caste is only teachers’
The teachers sitting on strike expressed their pain and clearly said that their caste is only ‘teacher’. They are deeply hurt by the issues of casteism or biracialism being spread in the society. Teachers alleged that due to the corrupt functioning of BSA, different sections of the society are forced to protest on different days. However, he stressed that teachers will not, under any circumstances, allow caste discrimination to develop in the society or among children.
Strike postponed for two days
After the strong stance of Minister Kapil Dev Aggarwal, his solid assurance and phone conversation with the District Magistrate, the teachers have postponed their strike for two days. However, the teachers have also given a clear warning that if proper and just action is not taken on their demands during this period, then they will prepare a further strategy and launch a big movement again.