Two teacher reps hold talks with ministry officials on house rent hike

Two teachers are holding discussions with officials at the Finance Ministry over the demand for a 20 percent house rent allowance for MPO-listed teachers and employees in non-government educational institutions. The meeting began around 11:20am on Sunday.

The two representatives are Principal Main Uddin, convener of the MPO-listed Education Nationalization Aspiring Alliance, and Principal Delawar Hossain Azizi, the alliance's member secretary. Earlier, a 13-member delegation from the alliance entered the Secretariat.

Two of them were called for talks. The protesting delegation entered the Secretariat around 10:30am on Sunday.

The other members of the delegation are Md. Rafiqul Islam, Md. Abu Taleb Sohag, Nurul Amin Helali, Ashrafuzzaman Hanif, Principal Alauddin, Tofayel Sarkar, Shant Islam, Habibullah Raju, Engineer Abul Bashar, Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, and Azizur Rahman Azam.

The teachers and employees in non-government institutions have been staging a sit-in in the Press Club area in the capital over their three-point demand, including 20 percent house rent on basic pay. The area is now packed to capacity. They have given the government an ultimatum until Sunday evening. If no gazette notification is issued by tomorrow, all MPO-listed institutions will observe a full-day work stoppage, the teachers said.

Principal Delawar Hossain Azizi confirmed this. He said if the demand is not met, MPO-listed teachers and employees will stage a full-day work stoppage from Tuesday.