Mahendra Kumar Mishra, an ad hoc teacher at Moksh Dwar Inter College, Bahraich district, died on June 26 due to mouth cancer as his family was unable to sustain the high treatment cost. “My father was not getting salary since April 2022. We continued treatment for some time after taking loan from relatives. We want his deserved salary and other benefits to survive as he was the only earning member,” said his daughter Pallavi Mishra. The late Mishra was among the hundreds of ad hoc teachers working in government-aided inter colleges whose salaries have been pending since almost one year.
Hundreds of his colleagues are organising protests since the last 33 days at the Directorate of Secondary Education campus in Lucknow, demanding payment of the salary, alleging apathy by the Uttar Pradesh Government, despite these teachers spending roughly two decades of service in these aided inter colleges and getting regular salaries till almost a year ago.
“The Uttar Pradesh Government paid us regular salaries and other benefits given to regular employees for roughly two decades, but put an end to it around April-June, 2022. How can our families survive as many of us are the only earning member in the family. The department is doing gross injustice,” said Raj Mani Singh, president of the Madhyamik Tadarth Shikshak Sangharsh Samiti, the organisation leading the sit-in protest.
