Mumbai: As the term of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis draws to a close, the specter of suicides at Mantralaya has come back to haunt it. On Wednesday evening Hemant Patil from Chalisgaon and Arun Netore from Osmanabad, jumped off from second floor of the Mantralaya building, and landed on the safety net fitted on the same floor. The two were taken in to custody by the police. Sources disclosed that there step was a protest to demand state government grants for ashram schools, which are permanently un-aided, facing financial issues now.
Both Patil and Netore have been running Divyang Ashram schools (residential) at Chalisgaon and Osmanabad respectively. The teachers teaching in Divyang schools protesting at Mantralaya alleged that the state has approved grant to three of the Divyang ashram schools recently, but the grant was not being released. A senior official said that three ashram schools were sanctioned grant as a ‘special case’ by the chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in his discretionary power.
There are about 800 Divyang/special ashram schools and over 6,000 teachers in the state. “About 200 teachers along with few school managers had come to meet Minister for Social Justice Suresh Khade however the Minister did not hear our pleas,” argued Kondiba Bande one of the teacher protesting at Mantralaya. He claimed that teachers in Divyang school are demanding state grant since last 15 years.
