CHENNAI: The members of Tamil Nadu Secondary Grade Seniority Teachers’ Association (SGST) have staged a protest demonstration at DPI campus on Friday demanding ‘equal pay for equal work’.
Tension prevailed at the DPI at Nungambakkam on Friday morning, after police forcibly detained more than 500 protesters who had gathered to lay siege to the campus.
Teachers, who refused to board the police vans, staged a sit-in protest near the DPI campus, and alleged that teachers appointed after 2009 were being paid lower salaries than their counterparts. Meanwhile, the situation grew tense when one of the female teachers fainted during the protest.
The protesting members say that the DMK leaders had promised to fulfil their demands during the election campaign in 2021, which was also reflected in the election manifesto. “However, no action has been taken so far,” a member of the association said.
Meanwhile, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday condemned the arrest of protesting teachers. In his statement, he stated, “The DMK had promised to fulfil their but had failed to honour the commitment. Instead, arresting them exposed its anarchic nature.”
He pointed out that the ruling party had repeatedly assured equal pay for equal work, yet for the past four-and-a-half years, the State government had done nothing beyond allowing teachers to protest on the streets while remaining a mute spectator. “If the government has no intention of fulfilling its promise, it should at least have the honesty to admit it,” he added.