Para-teachers call off protest as chief secretary Sudhir Tripathi forms panel to review demands

RANCHI: Over 10,000 para-teachers camping at Morhabadi grounds in Ranchi called off their state wide protests after chief secretary Sudhir Tripathi issued orders for the formation of a high-level committee to consider their demands on Tuesday evening.
The para-teachers, who covered several hundred kilometres on foot to reach Ranchi from all over the state, will travel back home and resume classes by Wednesday.

Sanjay Dubey, the president of the 'Ekakrit Para Shikshak Sangarsh Morcha', the representative body of para-teachers leading the protest, told TOI, "The state government has given us a timeline of 60 days for the report completion by the committee. The committee will study the salaries and the perks provided to the para-teachers in other states and give recommendations for the state's para-teacher community accordingly."

The high-level committee will comprise three representatives from the para-teachers' group.

"Our demands from the state government include equal wage for equal work and permanent jobs for TET qualified para-teachers," added Dubey. He said that the rest of the para-teachers on their way to Ranchi via foot have been instructed to return after the protests were officially called off on Tuesday afternoon.

After thousands of para-teachers arrived in Ranchi on Monday, the police administration stopped them at Morhabadi grounds and prevented them from reaching the chief minister's residence as planned.

Representatives of the group was then called for an exchange with chief secretary Sudhir Tripathi, who then instructed to form a high-level committee to consider the demands of the 70,000-odd para-teachers in the state. Education secretary A P Singh, Ranchi deputy commissioner Rai Mahimapat Ray and other officials were present at the meeting.