Leaders of the Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation on Wednesday criticised denial of permission to stage their proposed ‘maha dharna’ on Thursday, as part of their 100-day protest against “policies that are detrimental to the education sector.”
In a statement, federation president Ch. Manjula, general secretary K. Bhanu Murthy and former general secretary P. Panduranga Varaprasada Rao said the government was indifferent to the problems of teachers in the State.
There were several pending issues to be resolved, but none of them had been addressed so far. Vexed with the government apathy, the federation had resorted to a 100-day protest.
They said to mark its conclusion, a maha dharna was proposed for which they were denied permission.
They also found fault with what they called “autocratic” stand of the authorities and complained that teachers were being physically barred from moving out from their schools and served notices in the presence of students.
They said since permission to stage a protest was denied to them, the federation leaders tried to rent a hall to conduct a teachers’ meeting. But the government had instructed the owners not to rent out their halls to teacher and employees’ organisations, they said. They condemned the “undemocratic” stand of the authorities and said teachers would not stop their struggle till their demands were met by the government.
