Assistant masters stage demonstration demanding hike in salaries

Mangalore, February 10: The Dakshina Kannada district unit of Karnataka State High School Assistant Masters' Association on Saturday staged a peaceful demonstration to exert pressure on State Government to fulfil the various demands of assistant masters including a hike in their salaries.

Around 300 protesters took out a march from Jyothi Circle and assembled in front of the office of Deputy Commissioner here in the afternoon before submitting a memorandum consisting of their 15 demands to DC Subodh Yadav.

Addressing the protesters on the occasion, Manjunath Kumar KK, Organising Secretary of the Association urged the State Government to stop discrimination towards assistant masters.

He lamented that despite repeated appeals to the government over the years, no effort has been done to do justice to the assistant masters. He noted that the pay scale was lower for teachers in the state than in other states.

One of the main demands of the protesters was to increase the salaries of assistant masters from the present Rs 8,825-16,000 scale to the Rs 10,800-20,025 scale.

The Association urges the government to set the pay scale anomalies by complying with the recommendations of the Commissioner of Education Department based on Fifth Pay Commission.

It demands that the government should honour the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal's order and promote 75 per cent of high school teachers as headmasters and 50 per cent of headmasters as college lecturers.

It also demands medical allowance, special increment for teachers who have passed Kannada examinations, time-bound and recurring promotions for teachers from their respective dates of appointment and the removal of any discrepancies between the pay scales of junior and senior teachers.

The Association seeks that the Government should consider the suspended period of SSLC evaluators as special leave, recruitment of teachers in aided high schools by withdrawing the economic measures imposed on these schools.

Teachers recruited under rural grace marks basis in 1998 and 1999 should be reinstated and all facilities given to them should be continued and their seniority should be taken into account, says the Association.

It also underlined the need for the creation of a new post for Hindi inspectors.

The district unit President of the Association Ramakrishna Shirur, Stanley Tauro, Mangalore Urban Circle president, NS Madamaiah, city unit president, presidents of other units of the district were among those present during the protest.