Yesterday’s threats by the Education Minister of action against striking SSA teachers and their schools turned to accommodation by Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong, who promised that four months of pending salaries will be cleared as soon as possible.
SSA teachers have been protesting for the past four days in order to get their dues; they are owed salaries for the past five months.
Representatives of the Meghalaya SSA School Association (MSSASA) met with Tynsong today along with officials of the Education Department.
MSSASA president Aristotle Rymbai told reporters afterwards that it was a positive meeting.
The SSA teachers operate under a central government scheme and it is the latter who foot most of the bill. However, there has been a delay on the part of the Centre in releasing the funds. MSSASA has been demanding that the state government make alternative arrangements for their wages until the central government makes the transfer but the Meghalaya government has been pleading financial inability.
With public opinion – and that of political parties both in and out of government – largely against the government on this issue, the administration caved in. The state has a corpus fund of Rs 78 crore for SSA teachers but the 2021-22 fund had been exhausted, Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui said yesterday. Therefore, the government has promised an additional Rs 44 crore to cover the salaries of February and March (which fall in the last financial year). The salaries of the other months will be taken out of this financial year’s corpus fund.
“As for the remaining one month salary, it will be released once they (the state) receive it from the central government,” Rymbai said.
Tynsong also said that he and the Chief Minister will go to New Delhi to request the Union Ministry of Finance to release SSA teacher salaries on a quarterly basis.
On the separate subject of salary enhancement, Tynsong said that the government is sympathetic to the teachers’ plea but that the issue will be addressed when the proposed Education Commission is constituted.
Meanwhile, the SSA teachers have withdrawn their agitation. “Since the state government has agreed to release our four months’ salary we have decided to call off our agitation,” MSSASA president Aristotle Rymbai said, after the general executive council meeting held at the protest venue near the additional secretariat.
“However, if the state government fails to fulfil its promises, we will have no other option but to resume our indefinite protest,” he added.
