Earlier in the day, TN advocate-general Vijay Naray-an, appearing before the high court, categorically ruled out talks with the protesting government employees citing pleas challenging the strike pending in court. Narayan's submission was in response to Jactto-Geo plea in the court to direct the government to hold talks with the unions.
The unions assured the court they would withdraw the strike immediately if the government was ready for talks.
Efforts of Justice N Kirubakaran to "act as a bridge" between the government and the protesting employees failed to evoke any response. "Though the demands of the teachers look fair, other government employees joining the strike gives an impression that they are trying to blackmail the state," Justice Kirubakaran said while adjourning the hearing.
No change in practical exam schedule: Officials
Many teachers, TOI spoke to, said getting a posting of one’s choice is like saving ₹4-6 lakh bribe involved in obtaining transfer orders. Several thousand teachers across the state have been waiting for months for securing transfers to their preferred locations.
Moreover, the government had on Monday threatened that those who do not report for duty on Tuesday would have to forgo their current posting and would have to take transfers to other schools, locations and even districts. Fear of transfers to far off places and impending disciplinary action should have forced people to report for duty.
On Tuesday, the state school education directorate sent a circular to all CEOs to wait till 7 pm and initiate disciplinary proceedings against all the absentees and also declare their posts vacant. “Over 97% of teachers in high and higher secondary sections joined work on Tuesday,” said VC Rameswaramurugan, director of the state school education department.
Chennai CEO, R Thiruvalarselvi said only four teachers abstained from work on Tuesday. “Schools functioned with 99.7% teachers reporting for duty,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Government Examinations (TNDGE) issued a circular reiterating that there would not be any change in the practical examination schedule.
Practicals will be conducted for Class 11 and 12 students from February 13 to 22 and February 1 to 11 respectively.
The strike had little impact on the sub registrar offices. Functioning of all the 575 sub registrar offices in Tamil Nadu were normal, officials said.
There has been no change in the number of documents registered at sub-registrar offices after the strike started. As usual, about 8,000-10,000 documents per day were registered in the last one week, said a senior official.
The Tamil Nadu finance department on Tuesday sought to clarify that ₹21,891 crore contributed by the government staff and the government under the new contributory pension scheme was maintained in public accounts. “It has become necessary to explain the facts when there is a false propaganda (by Jactto-Geo) against the new contributory pension scheme,” an official statement said.
Meanwhile, chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan has warned government employees of disciplinary action if they went ahead with the oneday token strike announced by five employees’ associations (which are not part of Jactto-Geo) for Wednesday.TN Secretariat Association president Peter Anthonysamy, however, said the association would go ahead with the token strike as there was no invitation from chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami for talks.