Amaravati, Aug 14 (IANS) YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) MP M. Gurumoorthy on Friday strongly condemned the suspension of three government teachers for visiting Delhi to raise the concerns of the teaching community over the compulsory Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) rule for in‑service teachers.
The MP questioned what offence they had committed by raising teachers’ concerns.
A delegation of YSRCP leaders met Union Education Minister Prahlad Joshi in New Delhi on Thursday and urged the Centre to exempt senior in‑service teachers from the TET.
The YSRCP alleged that the government suspended State Teachers’ Union (STU) district president Sangameswara Reddy and YSR Teachers’ Association representatives Venkatnath Reddy and Amarnath Reddy.
“What wrong did they commit? Is fighting for teachers and taking the TET exemption issue to the notice of the Union Government an offence?” Gurumoorthy asked.
He said the three teachers had gone to Delhi solely to raise the problems faced by in‑service teachers over TET and had tried to meet Union Ministers to represent their concerns. They neither raised the DSC issue nor submitted any representation regarding DSC during their visit, he said.
The MP said it was shocking that the suspension orders cited their alleged involvement in the DSC issue, which had nothing to do with the purpose of their Delhi visit. He said punishing teachers for representing the legitimate concerns of their community reflected the government’s vindictive attitude.
He demanded the immediate revocation of the suspensions. He warned that if the government continued to victimise teachers for raising their legitimate concerns, the teaching community would teach it an appropriate lesson.
Meanwhile, Teachers’ MLC Kalpalatha strongly condemned the suspension of the three teachers who approached the Union Government seeking TET exemption for in‑service teachers and demanded that the orders be withdrawn immediately.
She said they were suspended merely for joining YSRCP MPs and MLCs in submitting the issue to Union Minister Prahlad Joshi. “Is raising a genuine problem affecting lakhs of in‑service teachers now an offence?” she asked.
Kalpalatha said the suspension orders falsely stated that the teachers had participated in a rally concerning DSC irregularities. She clarified that the three teachers had neither spoken about DSC nor submitted any representation on it; their only demand concerned TET exemption for serving teachers.
She said representatives of teacher associations have every democratic right to raise their members’ problems before the State and Central governments. Punishing them for doing so sends a message that the Education Department is being run through “Red Book” politics to intimidate anyone who questions the government, she said.
–IANS
ms/dan
