There seems to be no stopping for the ongoing strike by Tamil Nadu government teachers and employees who have been protesting under the banner the Joint Action Council of Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Organisations - Government Employees’ Organisations (JACTTO-GEO). With their strike continuing and entering its eighth day today, the government is planning to declare their posts as vacant from today and will replace them with temporary staff. Also, many were arrested for staging agitations.
Around 2,100 employees belonging to various staff unions associated with JACTTO-GEO were detained in Madurai when they attempted to stage road roko here as part of their strike. Their demands include reversal of the contributory pension scheme, payment of arrears according to the Pay Commission’s recommendations, increasing the salaries of secondary school teachers to be on a par with the pay of their Central government counterparts, etc.
Meanwhile, DMK president M K Stalin has said the DMK would fulfil the demands of teachers and government employees after coming to power and called upon Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to hold talks with representatives of JACTTO-GEO to bring an end to their strike. He said in a statment that all the just demands of JACTTO-GEO will be fulfilled through talks as and when the DMK came to power. "We will also cancel all the illegal actions taken by the government," he added.
The leader of opposition said the lethargic attitude of the Chief Minister and the School Education Minister was quite unfortunate when the strike of teachers and government employees under the banner of JACTTO-GEO was getting intense.
