Leaders of the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Organisations (FAPTO) announced their decision to temporarily defer their State-wide protest plan following an assurance given to them by the Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana that some of their key issues would be addressed immediately.
The federation president N. Venkateswarlu and secretary general Ch. Manjula said in a meeting held attended by teacher unions, the Education Minister and officials of the Education Department, they were assured that the bills pertaining to the pending arrears and salaries for August month would be paid immediately. Besides, the officials had also agreed to implement ‘work adjustment’ at mandal level and that the process would be extended to the division-level only if the situation warranted.
The Minister had also agreed to exempt teachers whose retirement was due within a year and those suffering from ill health from the ‘work adjustment’ exercise. He also responded favourably to the teachers’ demand for elaborate discussion and review of GO no. 117.
They said since another round of talks on the issue of ‘work burden’ was scheduled very soon, the federation decided to temporarily put off its State-wide agitation plan.
Later, speaking to the media, the federation leaders expressed their strong resentment to the government plan to promulgate an ordinance to implement the Guaranteed Pension Scheme (GPS) and said they were opposed to any such move. “We are opposed to the employees’ contribution to the pension. The government should keep its promise on restoration of the old pension scheme and spare hardships to the 3.5 lakh of its employees in the State,” said the federation’s secretary general Manjula.
The federation’s co-chairmen Narahari and Manoj Kumar, deputy secretary general Sai Srinivas and other leaders Chiranjeevi, Srinivasa Rao, KSS Prasad, H. Hrudayaraju, Timmanna, Bhanu Murthy and Ramanaiah participated. The officials who attended included Commissioner, School Education, S. Suresh Kumar, Samagra Shiksha State Project Director Srinivasa Rao, Joint Director (Services) M. Ramalingam, State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) Director Pratap Reddy, JD (Services coordinator) P. Parvathi and other officials.
