Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 5 (PTI) CJP South India in-charge Vijay Reddy Mallangi on Thursday joined a 12-hour hunger strike organised by LPST rank holders in front of the Keralam Secretariat here, demanding appointments to government schools.

Apart from Mallangi, a few other Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) activists also took part in the protest.

Speaking to reporters, Mallangi said Chief Minister V D Satheesan had earlier promised that the issue concerning Lower Primary School Teacher (LPST) rank holders would be resolved within 24 hours of the UDF government coming to power.

"The protesters have remained very peaceful and very hopeful that he will live up to his word. But after close to six months have passed by since the CM was sworn in, this issue has not been solved," he said.

He alleged that the government's failure to fulfil its promise pointed to irregularities in appointments of teachers in government and aided schools.

"There's a lot of irregularity, a lot of corruption. So to come clean, we demand to have a uniform recruitment process through PSC for all schools," he said.

Valarmathi, secretary of the Action Council and convenor of the LPST rank holders, has been on a hunger strike in front of the Secretariat for the past week.

She had tonsured her head on October 26 before beginning the hunger strike, demanding that appointments to government schools be made from the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) rank list for LPST posts before its expiry.

The rank holders are demanding appointment orders for all eligible candidates on the LPST rank list before its expiry, transfer of appointments to aided-school teaching posts to the PSC, an end to alleged cash-for-job practices in recruitment and a reduction in the teacher-student ratio to 1:25.

Although Education Minister P Samsudheen held talks with the protesters, the discussions failed to resolve the issue.

CM Satheesan had on Wednesday said his government was unable to accept the agitating LPST rank holders’ demand for a lower teacher-student ratio because of financial constraints, adding that his eyes had filled with tears when he saw a woman protester tonsure her head.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)
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