JACTTO-GEO suspends agitation after 9 days for benefit of students

Addressing the media, Vincent Palraj, one of the coordinators of JACTTO-GEO, said, “Considering the education of the poor students and to end the anxiety of the parents, we have decided to temporarily withdraw the protests.”

Stressing their host of demands, JACTTO-GEO, an association of government teachers and government employees, had commenced their indefinite protest on January 22. Over the course of more than a week, the strike intensified as members of various organisations expressed support for the protesters. Also, there were repeated warnings and requests from the State government for the protesters to return to work.

After Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan issued stern warnings to the protesting government officials and teachers that disciplinary action would be taken against the protesters who do not return to work by Wednesday and CM Edappadi K Palaniswami appealed to them to return to work, majority of the protesters joined duty on Wednesday. “Around 95 per cent of government employees and 99 per cent of teachers have returned to work on Wednesday,” said officials of Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms.

As the support for the protesters faded away, JACTTO-GEO office bearers met on Wednesday evening for over 90 minutes. In the meeting, it was decided that they would temporarily end their protests for the welfare of the students and that it would be continued later.

“Considering the advice of the high court and the appeal made by Chief Minister, we have decided to withdraw the protests,” said Vincent. He also demanded the government to drop all actions initiated by the State government against the protesters, such as suspension, salary cut and also the cases filed against them. Further, he demanded the Chief Minister to call the JACTTO-GEO members for talks and to fulfil their demands.

Following the withdrawal of the protests, normalcy will return to government offices and schools. The public exams that are due to commence on Friday will be held as planned as there was an element of doubt that whether the exams would be disrupted due to the protests.