Junior college teachers protest notices

Junior college teachers held a massive protest at Azad Maidan on Thursday against the criminal action notices issued to 222 teachers in Mumbai and 1,263 teachers across the state recently. The Mumbai Regional Junior College Teachers Union (MRJCTU) has claimed that the notices are unjustified and aimed at victimising the teachers for raising their voices against the apathy of the government.

According to Professor Anil Deshmukh, general secretary, MRJCTU, the notices were issued to teachers during the summer holidays and they were asked to respond by May 31. “The teachers were appointed as per instructions from the high court, but the education department officials have questioned the appointments thus being guilty of contempt of court,” said Prof Deshmukh.

He further added that with regard to the appointment of teachers a meeting had been held with the education minister in February and March in which Vinod Tawde had assured of the issue being addressed within a month. However, even as the issue remained unresolved, the department issued criminal notices to teachers, which hints at intentional victimisation of the teachers. Prof Deshmukh also alleged that there could be some vested interests of the officials in issuing the notices.

On Thursday, more than 1,000 teachers, including the affected teachers, gathered at Azad Maidan to voice their protest against the high-handedness of education department officials. After the protest, the union representatives met the deputy secretary of education Rajendra Pawar and handed over a memorandum that apprised him of the situation and asked him to get the notices withdrawn and initiate action against those who had issued them.

“Our delegation headed by MLC Ramnath Mote met Mr Pawar and exhorted him to take immediate action on the issue failing which the union would be forced to complain to the court of the contempt of its order,” said Prof Deshmukh.

Officials from the education department said that the matter would be referred to the higher authorities for instructions.