Teachers’ rally cripples traffic

Thousands upon thousands of newly-appointed fixed-pay school teachers took out a ‘Shikshak adhikar rally’ in support of their demands for prescribed pay-scale and service conditions on par with regular teachers, regular monthly salary payment and withdrawal of cases against teachers, which had the state capital completely bottled up on Wednesday.

Thousands upon thousands of newly-appointed fixed-pay school teachers took out a ‘Shikshak adhikar rally’ in support of their demands for prescribed pay-scale and service conditions on par with regular teachers, regular monthly salary payment and withdrawal of cases against teachers, which had the state capital completely bottled up on Wednesday.

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The rally passed through the Dak Bungalow and terminated at the R-Block via the railway station, throwing traffic completely out of gear during peak hours. With the R-Block gate closed and long snarlups at Dak Bungalow due to the long procession, school buses and other commuters were trapped for hours.

At R-Block, the leaders of the primary teachers’ bodies threatened to boycott academic activities, if the government did not stop victimisation of teachers for raising demands during the ‘adhikar yatra’ of the chief minister.

With police closing the gates, it created a traffic mess with a long queue of vehicles taking a U-turn.

The cascading effect was on all important roads — be it Budh Marg, Exhibition Road, Frazer Road, station road or the Beerchand Patel Path, as vehicles moved at a snail’s pace. Ambulances and school buses also had a torrid time, as the mess only aggravated with the passage of time.

The teachers, on the other hand, were unconcerned with the chaos.

“The cases lodged against teachers should be immediately withdrawn. Four teachers lodged in Khagaria jail should be released forthwith, else we will have to boycott all academic work,” they added.

The teachers said, they were demanding their right based on the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’.

“This is our right,” they added.