TURA: SSA school teachers from Garo Hills under the banner of the All Garo Hills SSA School Teachers Association (AGHSSASTA) on Monday threatened to stage a hunger strike on December 24 and 25 in front of Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma’s residence if the five months’ pending salaries are not released before Christmas.
The association, while pointing out that non-release of the pending salaries would lead to them and their families missing out on a proper celebration of Christmas, out-rightly rejected the recent claim made by the Education Minister in a statement that the pending salaries were due to the non-release of funds from the centre.
“On August 14 this year, PAB of 2020-21 was sanctioned by the central Government to the state of Meghalaya. We are confirmed of the fact that the state has already received the PAB of 2020-21 installments. Therefore we cannot accept the press statement released by the state Education minister who claimed the non-released of the funds by the central Government as the reason for the pending salaries. If the State Government still does not bother to address the current grievances of SSA Teachers in the State at the earliest and cannot give the clear clarification concerning the receipt of funds of PAB-2020-21, we would be compelled to take the issues to the Central Government within a couple of days,” the association said.
The association reminded that Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had often stated that the focus of the government was on quality education and asked how he expected quality education in the state without providing the salaries of the teachers.
“Where is the promise made by the chief Minister during the last election campaign in which he assured ‘Education would be the top and first priority among all other departments in the state’? If Education is the top priority of the MDA Government then why the SSA teachers of Meghalaya are facing this grave situation,” it said.
The association also questioned the stand taken by the state government which maintains that none of the states in the country had received the funds from the Centre.
“The state Government is claiming that the central has not released even its first installment to the state Government of Meghalaya. If that is so, how can we expect to implement all the installments of PAB 2020-21 within two months- January and February 2021 before Next PAB of 2021-22? Would it be possible for the state Government to submit all the utilization certificates within two months before the next PAB of 2021-22 is released?” it asked.