The relay hunger strike by teachers and employees of private educational institutions entered its third day on Monday, with members of the Hubballi and Dharwad urban and rural units of Karnataka Madhyamika Shala Noukarara Sangha continuing with their stir in Dharwad.
Office-bearers of the organisation N.N. Savanur, N.C. Patil, S.B. Hiremath and others spoke on why they had to launch the relay hunger strike and elaborated on the various pending issues concerning teachers and private educational institutions. Members of various management boards of educational institutions from Belagavi, Hubballi, and Dharwad took part in the agitation, along with former MLA N.H. Konaraddi, and expressed solidarity with the protesters.
Former Minister Basavaraj Horatti, who is leading the protest, told presspersons that as the government had failed to respond to their pleas, they were forced to hold the relay hunger strike. At least now the government is responding to the demands one by one, he said.
Meeting
Mr. Horatti said that after the launch of the agitation, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S. Suresh Kumar has convened a meeting of officials of the department on December 16 in Bengaluru and has invited him to participate in it. Mr. Horatti said he would participate in the meeting, provided the Minister was positive towards fulfilling the demands. But meanwhile, the agitation will continue, he added.
Later, addressing the protesters, Mr. Horatti said that before proceeding to the meeting, he would speak to the Minister and if Mr. Kumar did not appear open-minded when it came to resolving the long-pending issues, he would not participate in the meeting.
The group's State general secretary, G.R. Bhat, said that more teachers and non-teaching staff members of private institutions would participate in the agitation day by day.