Aspiring Sanskrit Teachers Brave Winter Chill To Protest On Bhubaneswar Street

Braving the rising cold, scores of aspiring Sanskrit teachers are now on an indefinite strike at Lower PMG in Bhubaneswar. Though their agitation has entered nineteenth day, the State government is yet to take steps for resolving their grievances including appointments.

The aspirants alleged that in the last seven years, the State government has released notification for recruitment in 1304 posts. But unfortunately, the State government is trying not to fill up the vacancies by only giving appointments to a few, the protestors alleged.

As a result, the aspirants, who have qualified in OSSTET and CBT, are being deprived of getting jobs. Similarly, several eligible candidates are failing to get jobs due to age restrictions as well. It is pertinent to mention here that the State government had issued the notification in August this year for the recruitment of 2055 Hindi teachers, 1304 Sanskrit teachers and 1260 Physical Education Teachers.

“We have been staging demonstration for the last 19 days with a hope to get jobs. Though document verification has been completed, we are yet to get jobs. We feel that we have done a big mistake for opting to become Sanskrit teacher,” said an agitator.

The protestors alleged that at present there are over 4000 vacancies. Despite huge openings in posts of Sanskrit teachers, the State government recently released notification to recruit only 796 teachers.

“There are adequate numbers of qualified Sanskrit teachers. But it seems that the government is not committed to eradicate unemployment,” said another protestor. Meanwhile, the State government officials could not be contacted over the allegations.