BJP stages walkout over teachers' appointment

The Opposition BJP today staged a walk out in Vidhan Sabha alleging that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was evasive in his reply over the appointment of the teachers under the various schemes.
BJP MLAs Ravinder Singh Ravi and Hansraj wanted to know from the government whether there was any policy to regularise the services of the teachers appointed as Primary Assistant Teachers (PAT) and those appointed by Parents Teachers Association (PTA) and School Management Committee (SMC).
They alleged thatreservation roaster was not followed andappointments were made through backdoor, without any policy in place.
During the question hour, they wanted reply from the chief minister if a policy would be framed for regularising these teachers and reservation roaster would be followed.

Alleging that the CM was evasive in his reply and not answering to their queries, the BJP members staged a walkout and raised slogans but returned to the House after few minutes.
"The roster for reservation was not followed in spite the fact that there were 18 per cent other backward classes (OBC), 26 per cent Schedule Caste (SC) and 9 per cent Schedule Tribe (ST) in the state, they alleged.

Hansraj said PTA teachers have been working for past 18 years and PAT for 14 years, and asked why the government made such policies which has made an educated youth to suffer.

Replying to supplementary questions of the members, Singh said "justice would be done to these teachers and we are committed to their welfare as we cannot keep them on contract for lifetime" and asked the MLAs to wait for the budget.
The CM said that a petition regarding the appointment was pending in the high court while the matter regarding regularisation of these teachers was pending in the Supreme Court which said that "It is open to the state of Himachal Pradesh to make any appointment by following the competitive method/procedure by giving equal opportunity to all the eligible candidates."

Emphasising that appointments through PTA were the need of the hour as regular teachers are not available for serving in remote areas and the students were suffering, Singh pointed out that the BJP government had also appointed 'Vidya Upasaks' with matriculation as qualification.
Replying to Vinod Kumar's question relating to SMC teachers, the chief minister said the "matter was being examined".
In reply to a question regarding upgrade of schools, Singh said 54 new primary schools were opened in past two years and 142 primary schools were upgraded as elementary schools under Right to Free and Compulsory Education.