BJP MLC: WILL DONATE OUR SALARIES TO TEACHERS IF GOVT UNABLE TO HELP

LUCKNOW: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLC Umesh Dwivedi has said teachers’ quota and graduate constituency MLCs are willing to donate their salaries and funds for the welfare of teachers of unaided institutions facing financial hardship due to the pandemic.

Dwivedi, who also heads the Shikshak Mahasabha (a teachers’ body in the state), has made this suggestion to his own party’s government.

There are an estimated 3.5 lakh teachers working in 21,000 unaided colleges across the state. The BJP MLC, in his letter to CM Yogi Adityanath, has said that there was hardly any public representative who wouldn’t understand the plight of the unaided college teachers, most of whom were allegedly not being paid salaries by their college managements during pandemic times.

“The college managements claim that they don’t have money to pay to teachers as they aren’t getting fees from the students in these Covid times. Thus, it is important that we help such teachers who are hit by penury,” Dwivedi said. Dwivedi, a teachers’ quota MLC from Lucknow, said there were eight MLCs elected on teachers’ quota seats.

“There are another eight MLCs who are elected on graduate constituency seats and in whose election again teachers play an important role. If the government was unable to earmark funds for unaided college teachers during these times, we would be willing to offer not just our MLC fund, but also our entire salary for the cause,” Dwivedi said. “If the proposal is acceptable, we would want the govt to transfer our salaries/ funds directly into the accounts of teachers,” Dwivedi said.