Mid-day meal tragedy: Protesting primary teachers to resume duties

Four days after staying off from duties in midday meal scheme, nearly three lakh primary school teachers on Monday decided to end their stir after assurance from the government to look into their demands. The teachers would resume midday meal scheme duties from tomorrow.

"We have arrived at a solution following which the teachers have decided to end their boycott of midday meal duties," R Lakhmanan, Director Bihar midday meal scheme, told PTI after talks with the Teachers Association.

Lakshaman said, "We assured the Bihar Primary Teachers Association representatives that the state government would explore alternative arrangements to keep the teachers off from operational responsibility like supervising cooking work under the programme in phases." The state government would consult the Centre also on the subject, he said.

Director, Primary Education, S K Chaudhary who also participated in talks with teachers Association, said that the teachers would return to their duties in the scheme from tomorrow.

Association President Brajnandan Sharma along with other office bearers after day-long deliberations among representatives from all 38 districts met the government representatives to assure them of resuming work from tomorrow.

Nearly three lakh primary school teachers had boycotted duties under midday meal scheme since July 25 on the ground that it was affecting their academic work besides bringing bad names due to alleged corruption done by others in the programme.

As per the state government's own assessment, nearly 10 lakh school children could not be served free food during the boycott across the state including those in Saran where 23 children lost lives in Dharmasati Gandaman primary school.

Though the state government referred to the Supreme Court directives for implementation of midday meal scheme, the agitating teachers pointed to the recent Allahabad High Court decision that ordered to bar teachers from non-teaching job.

Earlier in the day a large number of people engaged as cook under midday meal scheme organised protest in the capital demanding hike in their payment to Rs 5000 per month from Rs 1000 at present.