GANDHINAGAR, June 24: The contentious issue of the State-wide indefinite strike by secondary and higher secondary schools' teachers to press for demands, including revision as per the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations, seems to have divided the BJP Government.While Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and his Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala are not ready to accept the demands, and instead, warn the teachers of severe actions, a few of their Cabinet colleagues blame Minister of State for Education Anandiben Patel and Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala for inept handling of the issue.After the Weekly Cabinet meeting here today, the Chief Minister remarked that ``the government will have to take some drastic measures, if the teachers fail to respond to our repeated appeals to withdraw the agitation''. The statement was made at the weekly Press briefing soon after he faced a pointed question repeatedly: whether the government lacked political will in breaking the deadlock between it and the agitating teachers.While Anandiben Patel was conspicuous by her absence at the Press meet, both Both Keshubhai Patel and Vajubhai Vala were virtually on the defensive. Vala said the teachers could not force the government to implement the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations, including a revision in salaries. The government has already granted the scales of Rs 5,000-Rs 8,500 for the teachers whose scales have reached Rs 1,400-Rs 2,600, he said.``Now the teachers are demanding the scales of Rs 5,500- Rs 9,000 on par with that for their counterparts in the Central Government, which cannot be accepted'', the Finance Minister asserted.Vala said he had asked the teachers' representatives to put up their case before the Anomaly Committee set up by the State Government. ``But, negotiations with the teachers are still on'', he hastened to add.During the Cabinet meeting, a senior minister was even reported to have told Keshubhai Patel that the latter should immediately intervene and bring an end to the stir by the teachers who continued to hold not only the students and parents, but the BJP Government to ransom for the past 10 days.Apprising the Cabinet of a series of meetings she and senior officials of the Education Department had with the teachers' representatives in the last few days, Anandiben said the demand for increase in salary could not be conceded as the amount being worked out ran into crores of rupees.Anandiben said that she had, on behalf of the government, made appeals to the teachers' representatives to withdraw the strike, but they did not respond yet.This reportedly prompted a senior minister to say, ``Such appeals will not serve any purpose and the government will have to deal effectively with the striking teachers in the larger interests of the student community''.
