Mangaluru: MLC S L Boje Gowda, who represents the Karnataka South West Teachers’ constituency, lamented not being able to address the problems of the teachers, especially with regard to the transfers and revision of salaries.

Boje Gowda, was addressing a gathering of teachers after inaugurating a Teachers’ Day celebration organised at the St Aloysius High School auditorium in the city. Boje Gowda said, “The honorarium of elected representatives like MLAs, MLCs and MPs gets revised at least thrice in a term. We usually receive around Rs 40,000 for attending a meeting to discuss the problems of public. However, I could not address problems such as the transfer of teachers and the revision of salaries properly. I assure that I will become the voice of the teachers in the Legislative Council in the coming sessions and try to address their issues properly.”

Meanwhile, retired teachers and those teachers who received state and district level awards, were felicitated on the occasion. The children of teachers who secured high scores during the SSLC and PUC examinations were also honoured and given cash awards and citation.

Delivering the Key-note address, Prof. P L Dharma of the Mangalore University said that teachers should not discriminate between students and help them instil knowledge on nationality and constitutional values.

Taluk Panchayat president Mohammed Monu presided over the programme.

Mangaluru North MLA Dr Bharath Shetty, St Aloysius High School headmaster Rev Fr Jerald Furtado, coordinating officer Shankarappa Mudnal, Teachers’ Association office-bearers Aloysius D’Souza, Praveen Cutinho, Chanchalakshi, Ambareesh, Hareesh Rai, Cheluvamma, Umesh, Mohan Kumar, Jayaram K H Nayak, Dayanand Mada and others were present.