Left-leaning teachers’ organisations have strongly criticised the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government for continuing to stall the disbursal of dearness allowances (DA) for college and university teachers.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, the All Kerala Private College Teachers’ Association, Association of Kerala Government College Teachers, and Federation of University Teachers’ Associations demanded an end to the alleged discrimination meted out to the teaching community.
The organisations flagged denying teachers their eligible DA despite such allowances being provided to all other categories of government employees, including senior bureaucrats. Besides, the government announced its intention to disburse one more instalment of DA for government employees and pensioners in April in the State Budget.
Under such circumstances, the government can no longer prolong releasing the allowance for teachers. They also demanded that DA equivalent to that being provided for government employees be provided for university and college teachers at the earliest.
In what could worsen the plight of the cash-strapped LDF government, the teachers organisations also threatened to organise a joint agitation against the alleged apathy of the government.
