Orissa teachers mark black day

As the rest of the country celebrated Teachers Day on Monday,thousands of teachers and non-teaching staff belonging to 1,983 block-grant schools of Orissa observed black day demanding full grant-in-aid payment. For over a month,teachers in these schools have been on strike,demanding abolition of the block-grant system that started in January 2004 by the Naveen Patnaik government. Under the scheme,the government gives an annual consolidated grant of 60 per cent of the total salaries of the teachers in these schools while the rest 40 per cent is given by the school managing committee.