Police foiled the 36-hour-long protest plan of the AP United Teachers’ Federation (APUTF) on January 9 (Tuesday) by using force to remove the protesting teachers from Dharna Chowk.
The teachers are demanding payment of arrears worth ₹18,000 crore the government has to pay to its employees and teachers.
Later speaking to the media, the Federation’s State president N. Venkateswarlu and general secretary K.S.S. Prasad said they had made a representation to the Chief Secretary and the Minister concerned informing them about their decision to stage a 36-hour protest on January 9 and 10, since the government had failed to heed their pleas in this regard. But, instead of solving their issues in a democratic way by inviting them for talks, the government was using force to thwart their peaceful protests, they alleged.
The irate teachers said they were not asking the government for a favour, they were asking for their own money, which they had saved for emergency use but was diverted by the government for some other purpose. In the joint staff council meeting held in August last year, the Group of Ministers had assured representatives of various teacher and employee unions that all pending arrears would be paid by September of the same year, but it was not implemented, they pointed out and alleged that teachers in the State were subjected to constant harassment.
The teacher union leaders said there was no accountability on the part of the officials. Nobody was in a position to tell them when their money would be paid back to them. Teachers staging a protest seeking timely payment of their monthly salaries were being arrested and shifted to police stations, they said.
They reiterated their demand that the government invite them for talks and resolve the long-pending issues besides initiating immediate steps to ensure timely payment of their monthly salaries and warned of serious repercussions if the government failed to concede their demands.
The federation’s honorary president K. Srinivasa Rao, co-presidents K. Suresh Kumar and A. N. Kusuma Kumari, treasurer B. Gopi Murthy and a host of others were arrested and shifted to the nearest police stations.
Leaders of Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation (APTF) have condemned the arrest of UTF members.
In a statement, the federation’s State president G. Hrudayaraju and general secretary S. Chiranjeevi said the ‘indifferent attitude’ of the government may force the teacher unions to stage a collective State-wide protest in the days to come.
