Himachal to regularise services of 6,318 teachers

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh Tuesday informed the state assembly that services of over 6,000 teachers recruited through parents and teachers association (PTA) in schools and colleges would be regularised systematically.

"The government will take back all the 6,318 PTA teachers who were removed from service for some reasons during the previous BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) regime," he said during question hour.

The chief minister said that in the next one-and-half years, when they will complete eight years of service, they would join on contract and after that, their services would be regularised.

Earlier, the eight-month-old Congress government had announced it would bring the PTA teachers on contract after completion of eight years of continuous service since 2006.

Singh said none of the PTA teachers would be affected by the conditions of educational classifications as per the Right to Education Act as they are qualified.

The chief minister said the BJP government had victimised the PTA teachers and had tried to crush their agitation.

Raising the question, BJP member Jairam Thakur said the Congress had made big promises to the PTA teachers during the election time and had misused them by even making them polling agents.

"Eight months have passed since the Congress took over reigns of the state, but the PTA teachers have not been regularised," he said.

Another BJP member Randhir Sharma denied that the BJP government had victimised the PTA teachers.