GANDHINAGAR, June 17: Secondary and higher secondary teachers will go on indefinite strike throughout the State tomorrow to press for their various demands, as talks with the government broke down today.After prolonged discussion with the teachers' representatives at the Sachivalaya here, Minister of State for Education Anandiben Patel told reporters: ``the educational activity in schools will be paralysed as it will be difficult for the government to make alternative arrangements on such a large scale.''Patel said she made repeated pleas to the teachers' representatives to defer the strike till Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel returned from his tour to cyclone-hit areas. Though they agreed to resume talks in his presence tomorrow, they refused to put off the strike.The teachers have been demanding implementation of the Fifth Pay commission recommendations and protection to the surplus teachers, among others.To a question, Patel said the government would have to bear an additional burden of about Rs 100 crore, if the demand for more pay. But, the teachers put it to 30 crore."Now, it is upto the Chief Minister to decide whether the government should pay salary to the State teachers at par with their counterparts teaching in central schools", Anandiben said, adding that the contentious issue could be resolved if "both the negotiating parties adopt a pragmatic approach".The agitational programmes announced by the co-ordination committee of the teachers' bodies include an indefinite fast to be undertaken by a group of teachers at the Ch-5 Circle in Gandhinagar on Thursday, followed by the locking of schools throughout the State on Friday and the boycott of re-assessment of marksheets of SSC and HSC students on Saturday.Many of the secondary and higher schools in Ahmedabad will remain closed in view of the strike. Some of the schools will remain open but no classes will be held until the striking teachers and principals rejoin and regular classes can be conducted. Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee has extended their support to the teachers and principals' strike. GPCC General Secretary Ashok Punjabi has in a press release said that the government should accept the reasonable demands of the teachers before the situation gets worse.ENS adds from Vadodara: As many as 10,000 teaching and non-teaching staff as well as principals of all the secondary and higher secondary schools in the city and the district will join the indefinite strike from Thursday to press for an early solution of their long-pending demands.Their demands include the payment of salaries to surplus teachers and recruitment of non-teaching staff in proportion to the number of students in each school.The teachers and school staff had gone on a strike in March, following which they were assured by the State Education Ministry that their demands would be settled.The strike call has been issued by the City-Zilla Shaikshanik Sangh Sankalan Samiti since the demands are still pending.Samiti convenor Ashwin Shah said the strike would continue till all the demands of the teachers and the staff were resolved.
