Demanding the chief minister’s immediate attention to the woes of teachers and students of government, aided and unaided institutions, 14 legislators have resolved to stage an all-night indefinite protest in front of the Gandhi statue in Vidhana Soudha from Wednesday.

MLCs representing the teachers and graduates constituencies, decided to intensify their protest after the government failed to pay heed to their repeated appeals.

The MLCs gathered in front of the Gandhi statue on Wednesday at around 11.30 am.

When their protests went unnoticed, they announced stage an all-night protest, catching the attention of both Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayareddy and Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait.

Though both ministers tried to coax the legislators to drop their protest by giving assurances, the MLCs stuck to their resolve.

As many as six MLCs from the JD(S) — Basavaraj Horatti, Ramesh Babu, Maritibbegowda, Puttanna, K T Srikantegowda and Chowda Reddy Thupalli; five MLCs from the BJP — Ganesh Karnik, Amarnath Patil, S V Sankanur, Hanumanthappa Nirani and Arun Shahpur; and one Congress MLC, Sharanappa Mattur, are participating in the protest.

Two more BJP MLCs have extended their support to the protest, despite their absence.

Horatti told DH that the protesting legislators had put forward around 15 major demands before the government, including non-payment of salaries/pensions to teachers, discrimination between government students and students of aided institutions, non-implementation of the three-tier system, lack of basic amenities to government schools
and closure of Kannada schools.

The MLCs said that the protesters did not mind braving the rain as long as their demands are met.

A temporary shelter and bedding arrangements have been made.

With 15 pro-teacher demands, MLCs launch night-long stir