Leader of the Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha Vijender Gupta protested with 2,500 contractual teachers, whose services were terminated on April 1, outside the residence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal here on Monday.
The protest came after the delegation met Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung with regard to the recently-terminated services of contractual teachers, because of what the Delhi government said was the non-continuance of the posts by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
“These teachers were recruited years back under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and were recently served termination notices. They were informed by the Delhi government that they were disengaged due to non-continuation of the posts by MHRD, which is highly mischievous,” said Mr. Gupta in his address to the teachers.
BJP MLAs Om Prakash Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan also participated in the protest.
After the dharna at Mr. Kejriwal’s residence, the contingent submitted a memorandum to the L-G with details of how the Delhi government had done away with the services of teachers, just because they were working under a centrally-sponsored scheme.
Mr. Gupta alleged that as a result of the services of the teachers being terminated, nearly 2.5 lakh students were being denied education.
He added that as opposed to the allegation of the teachers’ services being discontinued in accordance with a decision of the MHRD, the “truth” was that the Central Government had “agreed to release 100% funds for the scheme”.
“The delegation has demanded that the L-G should impress upon the Delhi government to take back the 2,500 teachers under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan without any delay,” Mr. Gupta said, while adding that the L-G patiently heard their grievances and “assured” them that he would ask the AAP government to look into the matter and ensure justice for both teachers and students.
