Teachers on streets; oppn & govt confront each other

Chandigarh: Finding government teachers confronting the Haryana and Chandigarh cops on streets in a day of protests, the Haryana opposition seized the opportunity to attack the state’s BJP-JJP government over the “declining” number of schools and staff.
Pushed to the wall by both political opponents and the teachers and non-teaching staff on the rationalisation policy, Haryana education minister Kanwar Pal Gujjar went on a counter offensive, confronting the Congress with the data of school closures under its earlier time in power.The Haryana School Lecturers Association (HSLA) on Monday marched its protesters from Panchkula to Chandigarh, for laying siege to the residence of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
Police stopped the marchers at the Panchkula-Chandigarh border but the traffic was disrupted for two hours. Later, the copls let a small delegation go to the CM’s residence for an interacting with CM’s officer on special duty Bhupeshwar Dayal. Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda, former Union minister Selja, and Indian National Lok Dal legislator Abahay Chautala announced support for the agitating teachers and accused the government of trying to privatise education.
Deepender Hooda said: “The rest of the states allocate at least 16% of their budget to education, while Haryana dedicates just 14%. Budget manipulation under the garb of rationalisation has reduced the vacancies in schools and the number of schools. This is a scam.” Selja dared Khattar to make it public how many new schools his government had opened in the past eight years.
Education minister Gujjar denied that the school closures had impacted education in the state. He claimed that: “The earlier Congress government led by Bhupinder Hooda had closed 124 and 365 primary schools, respectively, in 2011 and 2014. We are only merging the schools that have a few students and are within a 3-kilometre radius. The schools are also being opened and upgraded, while teachers are also being appointed.”