Volunteer teachers' protest called off on PM’s assurance

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 April 2003, 18:04 GMT]
The forty day sit-in protest campaign by the Northeast provincial Tamil medium volunteer teachers, demanding permanent appointment, was called off Friday morning in the presence of the Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian, Mr.R.Sampanthan, Provincial Ministry of Education Secretary, Mr.R.Thiagalingam, and the President of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union, Mr.S.Thandauthapani, sources said.

Mr.Sampanthan, addressing the volunteer teachers who were conducting the protest campaign in front of the provincial ministry of education office since March 09, said that the Prime Minister had agreed that the problems of the Northeast volunteer teachers could not be compared with their counterparts in other provinces. Hence the Prime Minister had assured that he would see that permanency would be granted to the Northeast volunteer teachers with the approval of the Attorney General.

Mr.Sampanthan informed the volunteer teachers that documents related to this issue had already been dispatched to the Attorney General for a ruling and it was expected in a week's time.

Mr.C.Amirthalingam, President of the NE provincial Volunteer Teachers' Federation, said that they had decided to suspend the protest campaign on the assurance given by the Prime Minister. They would not hesitate to launch a protest campaign afresh if the government failed to fulfill its promise, he stressed.

Mr.R.Thiagalingam and Mr.Thandayuthapani also addressed the teachers.