THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a breather for the UDF government, the Lower Primary School Teacher (LPST) PSC rankholders, who have been protesting before the Secretariat here for the past 37 days, called off their hunger strike on Tuesday after the government informed them that their concerns will be addressed with compassion.
Following the discussion with General Education Minister N Samsudheen at his chamber on Tuesday, All Kerala LPST Rankholders Association secretary S Valarmathi, who had been on a hunger strike for the past 13 days, broke her fast by drinking water soon after the meeting. However, the rankholders informed that they are stepping back only from the hunger strike and other strong protest measures, but will be present in the protest arena.
“We will empathetically consider the rankholders’ demands to not issue PSC notifications every three years, without proper reporting of vacancies and to extend the validity of the rank list. The current list has a validity of one-and-a-half years more, which will be extended after this,” Minister N Samsudheen told the media after meeting the rankholders.
A committee comprising the general education secretary, director, and other top officials in the department will study the demands, including the inclusion of Head Teacher Vacancy (HTV) under the PSC’s umbrella and reduction of student-teacher ratio to 1:25. The minister has sought a time of 45 days from protesters for the same.
Even while expressing disappointment that the state government delayed the talks for so many days, Valarmathi said that she is happy that the discussion ended on a positive note. “The government has sought 45 days to look into our demands, and I believe that the issues will be resolved in our favour by September 24. Though I have ended the hunger strike, we will continue our peaceful protest before the Secretariat without slogans or demonstrations,” she said, after breaking her fast. Soon after this, Valarmathi was taken to a hospital for further medical care.
Stating that the government’s changed stance from seeking two months to consider their demands to ensuring a positive stance after 45 days, Aswathi N K from Palakkad, who also attended the meeting with the minister, told TNIE that they trust the government.