As Assembly polls near, employee unions pressure TS govt on demands

 Hyderabad: Hundreds of teachers staged a protest at Dharna Chowk, near Indira Park on Monday, demanding that the government undertake 'spouse transfers' immediately.

They said nearly 83,000 teacher couples were facing severe hardships, as husbands were posted in one district and their wives in the other district. They said their children and dependent parents were facing several problems due to this.

The teachers raised slogans against the state government and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for keeping this issue pending for long, despite ministers and BRS MLAs giving repeated assurances that the government will undertake spouse transfers soon.

The teachers faulted the government for not taking steps to vacate the stay order imposed by the High Court on transfers and delaying any action by citing the court cases. They alleged that the government had itself pushed the teachers transfer issue into the courts.

Apart from the GO 317 for transferring teachers on local basis district-wise, teachers are also upset with the lack of promotions since 2015 and transfers since 2018.

The new system was formulated after Telangana was reorganised into 33 districts from the earlier 10, in 2016. The teachers were allocated to newly-organised districst based on their nativity.

This caused several hardships to teachers in the middle of the academic year as they had to change their job location. The order divided teacher couples previously posted to the same place: now, the spouses were sent to different districts.

Besides, the government has failed to give promotions to teachers since 2015 and undertake general transfer since 2018. During the Teacher MLC elections this year, the BRS government initiated the transfers process in February but  it hit legal hurdle with High Court issuing stay orders.

Teachers sit on dharna for spouse transfers:

• 83,000 teacher couples affected due to different posting
• 1 year elapsed but no resolution, claim protesters
• Despite repeated assurances, no action from BRS
• Govt failed to vacate stay imposed by HC on transfers
• Teachers angry with lack of general transfers since 2018, promotions since 2015 Zonal system for job allocation claimed to be unfair
• Assurances made during teacher MLC elections ignored