155 striking teachers axed & 215 booked in Nalanda: DEO

BIHARSHARIF: Hundreds of striking teachers in the district took out a protest march at Biharsharif on Thursday and submitted a memorandum to DM Yogendra Kumar Singh in support of their demands, including revocation of suspension order and withdrawal of police cases against those teachers who did not join Intermediate answer sheet evaluation duty.
Representatives of different teachers’ associations said they would continue the agitation till the government agrees to their demands.
Describing the act of the teachers to abstain from evaluation work as a “punishable crime”, Nalanda district education officer (DEO) Manoj Kumar said so far 155 teachers were suspended and FIRs lodged against 215 for either not joining the evaluation work or preventing others from doing so.
He said 570 teachers, including guest teachers, had evaluated 1,59,554 answer sheets till Wednesday and only 1,31,042 answer sheets were left to be evaluated in the district. “Altogether 794 teachers were commissioned to evaluate 2,90,596 answer sheets at five centres in the district – National High School, Aadarsh High School, Nalanda College, Kisan College and Soghra College,” the DEO added.
The striking teachers, who burned effigies of CM Nitish Kumar, deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi and education minister recently, also went begging on streets, tonsured their heads and organized hawans as part of their protest.
Teachers in Sheikhpura also held a protest march on Wednesday while Kasar block education officer Manju Kumari on Thursday lodged FIRs against four teachers who refused to join evaluation work.