PTTI teachers held for staging stir in front of WB Assembly

Around 20 members of the West Bengal Primary Trained Teachers' Association (WBPTTA) were taken into custody here on Friday for staging a protest outside the Assembly to press for their wage-related demands. Police sources said the arrested teachers were taken to the city police headquarters at Lalbazar for violating prohibitory orders in the Assembly area.

WBPTTA state president Pintu Parui said the protest was organised to press for the demands for raising the monthly salary of PTTI teachers from the present Rs 3,800, "which is less than the salary of a sweeper". The teachers refused to leave the central lock up at Lalbazar by furnishing personal bonds and said they would stay there till Saturday morning, the police said.

Parui said as all the previous talks with the state government had failed to yield any result, they had decided to launch a movement from March 4. In the run-up to the March 4 sit-in, the association staged the stir in front of the main gate of the Assembly, he added.

The PTTI teachers are given training at the primary teachers' training institutes of the state that are recognised by the National Council for Teacher Education and affiliated to the West Bengal Board of Primary Education. They complain that despite bearing the workload of most of the primary schools in the rural areas, they are underpaid and discriminated against.

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