Deficit school teachers have decided to intensify agitation if the State government continues to delay disbursement of their regular salary besides other pending demands.
A decision was taken on Saturday by the teachers under the banner of the Khasi Jaiñtia Deficit School Teachers Association (KJDSTA) that they will seek an appointment to meet the Chief Minister and decide on their future course of agitation.
Stating that if the Chief Minister has the political will he should not allow teachers to suffer, KJDSTA vice president Suzan Syiem said, “If the meeting with the CM is unfruitful we will be forced to resort to very strong agitations.”
“Our silence does not show our weakness and we are just courteous because of the prevailing situation and as a teacher we don’t want to go to the street like NGOs. We want to do it decently but we also have a stomach and family to run. We have been working hard during this pandemic and teaching the students in school as well as the online classes at home on the same topics with the same salary and with total disregard to our long pending demands and we warn that we will have to hit the street if this persists,” Syiem told reporters.
Lamenting that the monthly salary of the deficit teachers happens after three-five months, she said, “We have received only 25 percent of the arrear of our revise pay scale and we demand the government to released the 75 percent pending arrear tuned to an average of Rs 1.80 lakh per deficit teachers of not less than 2700 deficit teachers in the entire state.”
Stating that the Education Principal Secretary in December informed that all matters related to salaries was cleared and asked them to further pursue with the Chief Minister, Syiem said, “We have been denied an appointment with the CM which is pure injustice.”
Furthermore, Syiem said that while the Death-cum-Retirement Gratuity (DCRG) recommended by the 4th pay commission is more than Rs 7 lakh the teachers are still receiving the gratuity of the 3rd Pay Commission which is just more than 3 lakh. She said those who retired after the 5th pay commission gets the Rs 10 lakh but that too is still pending.
