Self-immolation threat

SURAT, Aug 10: Ashok Patil, a teacher of the Swaminarayan Vidyalaya at Ramnagar has threatened to immolate himself outside the district collector8217;s office on Thursday morning in protest against the inability of the administration to protect the rights of teachers.

Patil, along with other Surat Shahar Manya Khangi Prathamik Shikshak Sangh SSMKPSS, has been on an indefinite fast outside the collectorate for the past two days. He alleges that he was beaten up by members of the school management after he filed a police complaint in April this year, alleging that he had been kidnapped and detained. He has since been suspended from the school.

Patil, who is the SSMPKSS Vice-President, is being joined by SSMKPSS president Deepak Patel, and four other teachers of private primary schools of the city. Patel contended that when the education administrator can suspend the permit of Sarita Vidyalaya, why can he not do so to the Swaminarayan School as well? The SSMKPSS has been agitating for the past many years on behalf of school teachers of primary private schools over the issues of salaries and other facilities, and what it terms as acute exploitation.8221;