Shaykh Mahmood Pasha clarified that SGTs recruited with secondary education and two-year doctorate in education do not have the right to vote in MLC elections.
Release date – July 2, 2024, 5:20 pm
Kothagudem: Shaikh Mahmood Pasha, a Secondary Grade Teacher (SGT), is conducting a unique diksha to highlight and address the issues of SGTs.
He began 108 days of Parahara Diksha on Monday, during which he will have only fruits as his staple food till October 16. His reason for taking up Diksha is to give voting rights to SGTs in the teachers MLC constituency elections, abolish the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and reintroduce the old pension scheme, he said.
Busy Telangana Today Pasha informed that SGTs who are recruited with secondary education and a two-year PhD in Education degree do not have the right to vote in MLC elections, resulting in teachers losing their voice in demanding for the realization of their rights.
There are around 65,000 SGTs working across Telangana. If they are given the right to vote in the MLC elections, they will be able to raise their voice and get their demands realised as those without the right to vote are often ignored by the rulers. He hoped that the state and central governments would look into the issue and give SGTs the right to vote in the teachers’ constituency MLC elections likely to be held in October this year. He asserted that even the teachers’ unions hardly care about the rights of SGTs.
Regarding their other demands, Pasha pointed out that lakhs of civil servants have been demanding the central and state governments to abolish the CPS since 2003, but to no avail. Due to the CPS, civil servants were not given any financial support after retirement, he said.
He said he would meet state legislators and pastors from the district during the diksha and submit a memorandum listing his demands. Similarly, he would also try to garner support from teachers’ associations for the cause.
Pasha, who is the principal of Jakaram Public Primary School under Malkod division in Alapalli upazila in the district, promotes fruitarianism – a diet that involves eating only raw fruit – for health and ethical reasons.
