Education Minister of WB urges primary teachers on strike to call it off

Kolkata : West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said on Saturday that the government cannot raise the pay scale of agitating primary school teachers by demanding the level of the state exchequer.

A section of the indefinite fast of primary school teachers demanding pay hike entered the seventh day Saturday.

The agitating teachers are demanding that they be paid on a par with their counterparts in other states, which they claim are “substantially higher”.

A member of the association said that primary teachers are paid between Rs. 9,300 and Rs. 34,800 elsewhere in the country, while in West Bengal they have been receiving a salary of Rs. 5,400-Rs. 25,200 for years.

On the recent transfer orders of 14 among them to faraway places, the minister said several transfers had been made to different schools in the proper student-teacher ratio.

Urging the agitating staffs to call off their hunger strike, Mr Chatterjee said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is sympathetic to their demand.

“Effective as a Hike as Demanded by Agitating Teachers to Increase Huge Costs to the State Government,” the minister told reporters after meeting Usti Primary Teachers’ Association.

But the state government can afford to look at some of the primary teachers’ salaries, he said.

The minister went on to say that the teachers went ahead with his request for a fast-paced association.

He said the fast should be off the students.

Mr Chatterjee said he did not go to the Hunger Strike as it was frequented by leaders of opposition parties.

While the CPI (M) has done a precious little when it comes to power, the BJP should look for a way to ensure that the center bears the financial burden. whole, he said.

However, if there was any unfair transfer, he would rather set the right, the minister promised.