NON-MPO TEACHER’S PROTEST Protesters reject education minister’s assurance

Teachers and employees of non-government schools, colleges and technical institutions, who are on hunger strike demanding their inclusion in the government’s Monthly Pay Order for salaries and other benefits, rejected education minister Nurul Islam Nahid’s call to end their protest on Tuesday.
In the morning, the minister went to end the hunger strike of the teachers, who have been under the open sky round the clock in the cold and on the street in front of National Press Club since December 26.
Assuring that they would be included in the MPO, Nahid said, ‘I hope you will end your protests,’ while adding, the finance minister have assured him of looking into the matter.
When the teachers asked for a specific time, the minister left the place in the face of slogans from the teachers.
After his departure, Non-MPO Educational Institutions’ Teachers and Employees Federation secretary Binoy Bhushan Roy said, ‘We are rejecting education minister’s call... We will die here if prime minister does not assure us’.
He said to New Age, ‘We are unsatisfied with the education minister’s call as he did not give specific time.’
The teachers went on hunger strike on Sunday morning after five days of sit-in on the street in front of National Press Club in Dhaka, without any response from the government.
Since Sunday, at least 35 teachers needed medical intervention as they continued to fast till death, organisers said. 
On Tuesday, a number of teachers with saline bags connected to their veins were found on the footpath of the Press Club.
Abhishek Mondal, who joined the strike from Shimu Reza MP College in Satkhira, said, ‘It is better to die here rather thnan to die daily without salary.’
There are about 80,000 teachers and employees of over 5,000 non-government educational institutions outside the purview of MPO.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net