State hopeful that relaxation to NSS on differently abled reservation will be extended to others: Minister

Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty has said that the government wants the rights of differently abled job seekers to be protected along with finding a solution to problems of other category school teachers.

He was making a statement under Rule 300 regarding appointment of differently abled persons in aided schools in the State in the Assembly on Thursday morning.

The Minister said the Supreme Court had in March last allowed the Nair Service Society (NSS) to regularise appointments made to general category posts in schools leaving out the posts reserved for the differently abled. Following this, various managements came to fore demanding that the relaxation allowed to the NSS be extended to them too.

The government had received legal opinion from the Advocate General and the Law department that the Supreme Court ruling was applicable only to the NSS. However, the government itself had filed an affidavit seeking that the relaxation be allowed to other aided school managements too after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took the initiative to call a meeting on the issue in the wake of protests by aided school managements.

As the formation of district-level committees to avoid delays in differently abled appointments too had been completed as per a Supreme Court judgment, the government had sought the court’s approval to regularise teachers’ appointments made to general category posts too.

Though the case had come up for hearing earlier this week, the Supreme Court had deferred the hearing to April 14 after higher secondary teachers, their organisations, and teachers’ organisations affiliated to political parties sought more time to submit statement of facts.

Permanent appointment

The Minister said the government expected that once the court delivered its ruling, permanent appointment could be given to all teachers working on provisional and daily wage basis from the date of their posting.

The government, the Minister underscored, was well aware of the apprehensions of other aided school teachers in connection with the issue of differently abled reservation.

Though it could issue orders only in accordance with court orders, the government had taken steps to provide benefits such as PEN number, leave, group insurance, provident fund, and promotion to those appointed on provisional basis in schools.

The Minister said 1,500-odd differently abled had been given appointments so far and advice memos sent to 431 more candidates on the rank list.

Public protests

Later, at a press conference the Minister said the issue of differently abled reservation in aided schools affected around around 20,000 teachers directly and indirectly. Many managements staging public protests on the issue had not supported the government in court, he pointed out.

The government had also decided to take legal opinion on regularising appointments of teachers other than those who had gone to court.