The state government pacified ad hoc teachers by agreeing for the latter’s proposal to be considered by the cabinet.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma held a meeting with the Federation of All School Teachers of Meghalaya (FASTOM) today where he made this promise to them.
The Main Secretariat today was tensed as FASTOM had planned on holding an indefinite demonstration at the gates until the CM met them.
They are demanding a pay rise and eventually bringing the ad hoc school under the deficit system. FASTOM had launched a ‘non-cooperation’ movement to pressure the government into acquiescing to their demands.
FASTOM spokesperson Mayborn Lyngdoh said that Sangma told them three cabinet meetings would be required to study the proposal.
“The Chief Minister also informed us that our proposal has been made even better by the Education Department because they have included other teachers also,” Lyngdoh said. “We are happy that government has taken the initiative to include others teachers, like those of Hindi and Science, among others. Based on that we are happy with the meeting we had with the government.”
Meanwhile, the CM said that the whole file is being processed and once it reaches his table it will be put up in the cabinet for discussion.
Concerning the financial implications, he once again reiterated that the impact is in hundreds of crores and once that happens, it will be an annual cost.
“If we were to go ahead with that kind of decision then there are only two ways ahead for us – one is to cut the budget from other departments and divert the funds from somewhere else and put it into this because there’s only one pool. The second issue is how to raise more revenue, so therefore all those things will have to be discussed in the cabinet,” Sangma said.
