Bhubaneswar: After a month's protest, the agitating block grant teachers have decided to put their strike on hold for two months, following a discussion with the chief secretary here on Thursday.The teachers will join the Plus II answer sheet evaluation, which they had been boycotting since March 19, in centres across the state from Friday. The teachers had been demanding the withdrawal of a controversial affidavit clause prescribed in the Grant-in-Aid (GIA) Policy, 2017, and fulfilment of a six-point charter of demands, including grant-in-aid for all."The government has sought two months' time to take a decision on the demands of the teachers. It has been actively considering them. We requested the teachers to put off the strike for a while. They decided to join work from Friday," said chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi The government, however, refused to withdraw the controversial affidavit clause in which the teachers and employees have to declare that they would not move court or stage a protest against the government in future. The teachers will also have to withdraw all pending court cases against the government to get benefits of notional grant-in-aid."The government assured us that it would consider giving salary as per government scale from the date of joining instead of a particular date," said Pabitra Mahala , convenor of All Odisha School College Teachers and Employees United Forum.The decision will benefit around 60,000 teachers and employees of block grant schools and colleges who will get a higher salary as per the state scale. This will cost the state exchequer Rs 614 crore per annum."There is still some confusion over the affidavit clause. But giving full grant-in aid to all teachers and employees will be a good incentive for us. We have been working on meagre pay for years and did not have any service benefits such as pension," said Prakash Chandra Mohanty , another convenor of the forum.Pressing for their demands, the teachers had boycotted both the matric and Plus II evaluation process this year.

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