Meghalaya SSA school teachers call off agitation

SHILLONG:A day after calling for a statewide strike, the Meghalaya SSA School Association (MSSASA) on Thursday decided to call off their agitation programme as the government has assured them to release their pending salary by next week.
It may be mentioned that the teacher’s body had announced a two-day leave en masse on September 24 and 25 to protest the delay for the payment of their salary and other dues for the past five months.
Addressing reporters, president of MSSASA Aristotle C Rymbai said, “The Education Minister has also clarified that the funds for paying the salary of SSA teachers amounting to Rs. 123 crore has been released and state government assured us that our pending five month salary which we have been demanding will be released next week.”
He informed that the pending salary to be released would be from the month of April-August 2018.
He also urged all the SSA teachers to go to their school and fulfill their duties .
Rymbai also informed that the government had told them that the monthly salary would remain the same for Lower Primary which is Rs 19, 044 and for Upper Primary teacher Rs 20, 493.
The MSSASA has also condemned the statement made by Defender Lamare general secretary of All Meghalaya SSA School Teacher Association (AMSSASTA) earlier this month accusing the MSSASA president Aristotle C Rymbai of being an agent of the present Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government.
In this connection, Rymbai informed that in a CEC meeting held on September 13, the association had decided to demand a clarification from Lamare on his accusation