Death of teachers in UP: Priyanka demands Rs 1 crore compensation, job for kin

Slamming the Yogi Adityanath dispensation over the death of teachers and workers who were on panchayat poll duty, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Sunday demanded that the Uttar Pradesh government give Rs 1 crore compensation each to the next of kin of the deceased and employment to one dependent from the bereaved family.

Attacking the government, Priyanka Gandhi said, "1,621 teachers who have died during the panchayat election duty should not fall prey to the government's callousness."

They fulfilled their responsibilities towards their duty, the Congress general secretary asserted.

"Now, the UP government should not indulge in a cover-up and should give compensation of Rs 1 crore to the families of all the deceased teachers, workers, and give a job to a dependent from the bereaved family," she said.

That will be the real tribute to them, Priyanka Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi, using the hashtag 'Nyay4ElectionWorkers'.

Last week, Uttar Pradesh Prathmik Shikshak Sangh president Dinesh Chandra Sharma had said that 1,621 teachers and workers of the Basic Education Department have died since the first week of April following the outbreak of the second wave of COVID-19.

Of these 1,621 deaths, more than 90 per cent of the teachers were on panchayat election duty, he had said, while also demanding Rs 1 crore to be paid to the kin of deceased teachers and workers as financial assistance.

However, Satish Chandra Dwivedi, the UP minister of state (independent charge) for basic education, had said that all these deaths cannot be attributed to elections and according to government data, only three teachers died due to Covid.

Earlier on Sunday, in a Facebook post, Priyanka Gandhi cited a media report to allege that the brother of the UP minister of state (independent charge) for basic education got an appointment as an assistant professor, "posing as poor".

"In this crisis, the ministers of the UP government are absent in helping the common people but are eager in grabbing 'opportunity in disaster'," she alleged.

Several lakh youths are looking for employment in UP but the jobs are going to those who are looking for "opportunities in disaster", Priyanka Gandhi said, adding that the state government is "making fun of both the poor and of reservation".