The State Government employees’ and teachers’ protest on Monday, in response to the indefinite strike call given by their union, Jactto-Geo, was a repetition of the Friday’s protest.
On Monday too, the employees and teachers marched from near the office of the Coimbatore Revenue Division Officer on State Bank Road to the Coimbatore Collectorate, squatted on the road and shouted slogans. They later courted arrest. Coimbatore City Police sources said that they had removed 2,100 protesters including 1,600 women.
Jactto-Geo’s coordinator for Coimbatore, V. Sampath Kumar, said the protesters intensified their protest on Monday because the Coimbatore City Police had arrested and lodged in prison 11 employees and teachers, who led the protest on Friday, something that had not happened in other districts.
The protesters would neither be cowed down by the police action nor would get enticed by the government’s offer to them of not initiating disciplinary action if they reported for duty on Monday. The decision of ministerial staff from the judiciary and a few other departments had only emboldened them and they would continue their strike until the government agreed to implement their demands.
Chendooran of Tamil Nadu Primary School Teachers’ Association reiterated the protesters’ demand, asking the government to revert to the old pension scheme, remove anomalies in the implementation of the latest pay commission and pay arrears.
The sources said that 15% (700 plus) government employees did not report for duty on Monday and their Rural Police counterparts said 66 % employees and teachers were absent.
The maximum impact of the strike was felt in the School Education Department, where 1,768 of the 4,824 Secondary Grade teachers in the government schools and 150 of the 1,465 teachers in the government-aided schools were absent. In the elementary school section, 3,152 of the 3,533 teachers in government schools and 80 of 745 teachers in government-aided schools did not report for duty.
In Coimbatore Corporation, 206 of the 867 teachers absented themselves from duty. The teachers not reporting for duty led to protest by parents and teachers in a few places in Coimbatore and Tirupur districts. According to sources, the parents protested in Periyaiyipalayam, near Avinashi, and Devangapuram, near Dharapuram, in Tirupur district. In Coimbatore, the parents staged a protest in Anamalai and Mukkonam urging the government to resolve the issue at the earliest.
The School Education Department sources also said that they received 700 applications from persons willing to take up temporary teaching assignments in government-run schools. Though the Department had received the applications, it was yet to deploy the candidates as it awaited the government’s instructions.
Meanwhile, in Mettupalayam, School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan said the government would soon resolve the issue and he would talk to the Chief Minister in this regard.
Later in the evening, police released all the protesting employees and teachers except 42 persons, whom it produced before a magistrate and sent to prison.