Hundreds of teachers whose services were hired by the J&K government on temporary contractual basis but were later disengaged Monday petitioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Governor Satya Pal Malik to allow them continue on an arrangement agreed up on in 2006.
At least 1200contractual teachers whose services were stopped have been protesting for 50days now here at Pratap Park, demanding re-engagement.
They say that theirdemand wasn’t for increase in salary or other fringe benefits but to “safeguardtheir future so that they are not pushed to the wall and forced to tread awrong path.”
“One of us, GulzarAhmed, who had M.Phil degree, passed away recently because of the highest levelof anxiety and depression caused by the government’s decision of throwing usout on the roads,” said Adil Gulzar, president of the Contractual TeachersAssociation Kashmir.
He said thatnotification for appointment of contractual teachers is not published everyyear but after a gap of seven, eight and some times more than ten years.
“The first suchnotification was issued in 1984, then in 1990 and then in 2006. The lastnotification was issued in 2018 where it was mentioned that the engagementperiod won’t be extended,” Gulzar said.
Governor Malik extendedtheir engagement period for 60 days and then again until May 10, 2019 after hemet a delegation of the distressed teachers.
“After that, we haveliterally been pushed to the wall and thrown on the roads. We have been leftwith no option other than to sit on a protest and today it is our 50th day onprotest,” Gulzar said.
“All the 1200 of usare highly qualified with degrees like M.Phil., Ph.D and B.Ed etc.”
The protestingteachers claim their teaching capabilities and skills pushed student performanceand their overall results up by 20 percent wherever they taught.
“Majority of us workin far flung areas of Kashmir that even include areas close to LoC like Uri,Decksum, Gurez, Tangdhar and Keran,” Gulzar said.
Gulzar said that hewas hopeful that Modi and Malik would “look into their issues on humanitarianbasis before it is too late”.