Representatives of aided educational institutions and management boards, who met in the presence of elected representatives and religious heads here on Saturday, have decided to give time to the government till January to meet their demands, including permission to recruit teaching and non-teaching staff.
“Otherwise we will be forced to observe indefinite bandh of aided educational institutions from January 9,” coordinator of the meeting and former Minister Basavaraj Horatti said at the end of the meeting, which saw participation of over 1,000 persons from across the State.
The meeting was held in the wake of failure of individual attempts by educational institutions to get government approvals required for smooth functioning of respective institutions and attempts by elected representatives at different levels not yielding any results.
After having waited for long, the institutions thought of coming together to bring pressure on the government and the Saturday’s meeting was held to bring together all on the same platform. These institutions had united for a similar cause way back in 2002.
Among those who took part in the meeting are N.H. Konaraddi, MLA, MLCs Mahanthesh Kavatagimath, S.V. Sankanur, Arun Shahapur and Hanumanth Nirani, former Ministers C.M. Udasi and P.C. Siddanagouda, and former MLAs Shrishailappa Bidarur and Viranna Charantimath, among others.
“To lead the protest, Karnataka Private Aided Institutions’ Management and Employees’ Association will be formed and it will have coordination committee, which will first meet the Chief Minister, Ministers for Primary and Secondary Education and Higher Education on October 14 to apprise them of the problems,” Mr. Horatti said.
“The next stage will be a black badge protest by members of management board and employees on December 1. Subsequently taluk-level coordination committees will initiate meetings and on December 10, they will hold protest and submit memorandum to taluk officials. It will be followed by a district-level protest on December 17. Then it will be pen down strike across Karnataka on December 20. It will be last warning from us to the government. If no action is taken then the indefinite bandh of schools and colleges will be launched from January 9,” he said.
Apart from the permission to fill up vacant posts of teaching and non-teaching staff, the other demands include addressing the disparity in emoluments and incentives when compared to employees of government institutions, maintaining teacher-student ratio, appointments on compassionate grounds, appointments of principals, extending the grant-in-aid to eligible institutions and so on.
