Shillong, Oct 9: The Khasi Jaintia Deficit School Teachers Association (KJDSTA) has rejected the government’s reply to its charter of demands, calling it disappointing and accusing the Education Department of “indifference and gentle blackmail”.
In a statement on Friday, the association said it received a letter on October 8 at 9 pm via Whatsapp from Commissioner & Secretary Vijay Kumar Mantri, signed by D Lyngdoh, Joint Secretary Education. The letter was in response to the joint memorandum submitted by KJDSTA and GHDSTEA to the Chief Minister on September 25.
The association alleged the reply indicates the government will “continue to trust a certain officer to continue with the manipulation of the issues” concerning deficit teachers. “This is one person whose words and orders we find difficult to trust,” it said.
KJDSTA said the letter tries to “bulldoze” the rejected Scheme 2026 and termed “the illegal reconstitution of the BOT and the delay in the accounting of our money in the Central account” as “nothing but a case of cheating.”
“We do not want to have anything to do with the board of trustees of other people,” the association said on the BOT issue.
On retirement benefits, KJDSTA said allowing retired teachers to withdraw their accumulation from the Central SBI pension account without interest is being projected as a favour, but teachers are being forced into it by “frustration and the dire financial need which are the making of the government itself.”
The association said the letter is silent on its core demands – completion of the Centralised Provident Fund Scheme for those appointed before April 2010 and the New Defined Contribution Pension Scheme – and instead relies on an “inconclusive” judgement of September 2026. It clarified, “we have not gone to court ourselves.”
The only positive in the reply, the KJDSTA acknowledged, is the assurance that deficit posts will not be abolished, but added that with related orders not withdrawn, teachers and future aspirants are “kept on tenterhooks.”
Stating that teachers are not seeking a pay hike but only “what we are supposed to get,” the association urged the government not to “create fake narratives to hurt us.”
With the ultimatum ending today, KJDSTA said it is “strongly considering agitational programmes soon.”
