Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday took a jibe at the Odisha government over the 'teacher on call' issue."While there are a large number of vacancies of teachers in the state, the state government has been using the contract teachers as Uber and Ola rented vehicles instead of regularising them," the minister said."It is the responsibility of the government of a welfare state to relieve the teachers of their existing financial problems so that they can take proper care of the students", he said in his message on social media on the occasion of Teachers' Day.Notably, the state government has decided to launch a teacher on call programme to engage retired teachers in secondary schools.
Pradhan said at present a total of 107,752 teachers, Gana Sikshaks and Siksha Sahayaks are appointed in primary schools in Odisha on contract.Saying that as many as 13,977 posts of high school teachers are vacant in the state, he said the state government has decided to recruit retired teachers instead of appointing thousands of B.Ed candidates.Reacting to the charges of the union minister, School and state Mass Education minister Debi Prasad Mishra said the state government had taken steps to fill up teacher posts."Let the Union minister refrain from indulging in tu tu mein mein (arguments) on the auspicious occasion", said Mishra.