Teachers withdraw stir

Teachers of unaided schools, who were on a hunger strike here for the last 71 days, withdrew it on Thursday.

Deputy Commissioner Darpan Jain gave them a copy of the government order on relaxing financial constraint to release Rs 111 crore to provide grant-in-aid to 718 unaided schools, in the presence of MLC Basavaraj Horatti who led the teachers’ agitation.

As per the instruction from Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, Principal Secretary  of the Finance Department issued an order relaxing the financial constraint, on Wednesday.

In view of this, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri and Principal Secretary of Public Instruction Department  G Kumar Nayak announced on Thursday that the process of releasing funds for grant-in-aid would begin soon, Horatti said.

On Thursday, the Unaided School Teachers’ Agitation Co-ordination Committee withdrew the protest, and Dharwad-Bangalore Padayatra was  discontinued  before it reached Tadas Cross, about 38 km from Dharwad.