96% teachers and staff of ZP schools take part in strike

Nagpur: The one-day strike on Monday by ZP employees and teachers of private-aided schools received a tremendous response with 96% teachers not reporting for duty. As reported by TOI earlier, class 3 and 4 employees of the zilla parishad, which also include teaching and non-teaching staff at its schools, had called for the strike to press for their demands which primarily focus on salary-related issues. Even teachers from private-aided schools were part of the protest. Out of the 4,566 primary ZP school teachers, around 4,300 did not report for duty.
In Nagpur, ground zero for the state-level strike was Samvidhan Chowk (RBI Square) where thousands of striking ZP employees gathered to raise their voice against pending demands. Over a dozen unions/associations have come together under the banner of a coordination committee to negotiate with the government.
Ashutosh Choudhary, part of the coordination committee in Nagpur district, said their strike was a super success. “The entire patch on this road was filled with people who had participated in the strike and this showed our unity. If the government does not agree to our demands then we will go on an indefinite strike beginning September 11,” said Choudhary.
Given Monday’s response to the strike, and the impending assembly elections in October, it is likely that the state government may arrive at some compromise to avert the indefinite strike call. Milind Wankhede, teacher union leader, said it is extremely important for the government to renew the old pension scheme. “It should be done for all those who joined from 2005 onwards and we must have parity with central government schemes,” said Wankhede.
There are multiple demands which the coordination committee has put forward and it represents the key issues that various organizations are pressing for.