Even as there is no response from the State government to their demands, health of some contractual teachers deteriorated on Saturday, the sixth day of hunger strike.
Teachers under the Meghalaya Government Lower Primary School Contractual Teachers Association (MGLPSCTA) are on an indefinite hunger strike in Malki ground.
“Some of us are getting physically weaker. The doctors have forced us to go to the hospital but we clearly told them that we don’t need medicines because we have not come here to get ourselves medicated, we are here to urge the government to give back our jobs which we have lost,” one of the agitating teachers, Birbor Riangtem said.
He said that if the government does not restore their jobs they will stay put and if anything happens to them and their families the government will be held responsible.
Riangtem also said that the East Khasi Hills district administration had told the agitating teachers that they will not be further permitted to hold protests since they have become physically weak.
He said that the teachers will not budge from the place even if the authorities try to forcefully remove them. He also said that in other states of the country, the posts of the contractual teachers can be regularised which it cannot be done in Meghalaya.
“In Assam around 46,000 contractual teachers’ posts were regularised. In Meghalaya there are only around 1000 can’t it be done,” he questioned.
Riangtem also said that when the MTET examinations were held papers were leaked. “We thought that the results would not be published but the results were put out anyway. On what basis did the government publish the MTET results and we failed,” he added.
