The Left parties supporting the government of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday protested against the change in the domicile policy allowing candidates from any States to become teachers in government-run schools in Bihar.
The MLAs from the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), the CPI (Marxist) and the CPI staged a protest against the government on the Assembly premises demanding restoration of the domicile norms. The parties support the government from outside.
The recent decision by the Bihar Cabinet to change the teachers’ recruitment norms has stoked a debate in the State. State Education Minister Chandra Shekhar has said the decision was taken to ensure that schools get quality teachers. He said authorities were facing problems in getting competent candidates for English, physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.
CPI (ML) MLA Birendra Prasad Gupta said, “The government must restore the domicile policy to stop the state of chaos where lakhs of teacher candidates are marching on the road for their rights.”
Asked about the BJP having the same demand, Mr. Gupta said, “BJP has destroyed the entire education system in India. Instead of Darwin’s theory they want Hanuman Chalisa as part of education. They want to change the history of the country by eliminating the visionary people, writers, poets, historians and think tanks. We are not bothered by what BJP is demanding, we are supporting the government from outside and we have a demand to restore the domicile policy as soon as possible. BJP is just doing politics over the issue.”
Another CPI(ML) MLA, Manoj Manzil, said, “Our party strongly believes that the teachers recruited at the local body level should be given the status of State employees. If there is need to made any amendment in the Bihar State School Teacher (Appointment, Transfer, Disciplinary Proceedings and Service Condition) Rules, 2023, it should be done. We are not going to tolerate any harsh action on the aspiring teachers.”
After Mr. Kumar snapped ties with the BJP last year and joined hands with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress to form the grand alliance government in Bihar, the CPI (ML) and the CPI(M) have been supporting the government from outside. The CPI(ML) has 12 MLAs, and the CPI(M) and the CPI two each.
CPI (ML) MLA Arun Singh and CPI(M)‘s Ajay Kumar said all contractual teachers should be given permanent status. They said the issue of contractual teachers was also mentioned in the manifesto of the Grand Alliance during the 2020 Assembly election.
.Meanwhile, teacher aspirants faced the wrath of the police as they tried to march to the Assembly, where the Monsoon session is on. The police resorted to lathi charge to disperse the protesters.
