West Bengal: 300 secondary school teachers show-caused for being absent on strike day

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) has issued notices to 300 odd school teachers asking them to show cause why they were absent on March 10, the day of a strike demanding increased dearness allowance (DA), disobeying the state government’s instruction to remain present.

A WBBSE official on Wednesday said that the show cause notices were issued to the teachers of various schools across the state. WBBSE President Ramanuj Ganguly told PTI that the Board only followed the state government’s recommendations on the issue.

"We went by the reports of the District Inspector of schools and heads of respective educational institutions about the presence of teaching staff on March 10 and implemented the directive of the state secretariat," Ganguly said.

While he did not specify the total number of teachers, the WBBSE official said the number was a little over 300. A forum of 18 state government employees’ organisations had called the strike on March 10 demanding a hike in DA.

The West Bengal government issued an order saying that all offices including those provided with grants-in-aid by the state such as educational institutions shall remain open on March 10 and all employees will report for duty on that day and no leave will be granted for that day.