Tura, July 14: The All Meghalaya 4th Teachers’ Association, Garo Hills Unit, has once again raised, with the government, the issue of regularization of their services as well as salary enhancement at par with their counterparts in the Adhoc UP School teachers including the release of annual increment of 5%.
The teachers raised the demand through a reminder of their earlier memorandum, submitted to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma, where they had requested the regularization of 1521 teachers under the category.
The salaries of Assistant teachers in the state have been enhanced to Rs 20,493/- since 2017 when the salaries of the 4th teachers was a mere Rs 12,000/-. After the issue was raised with the government several times, their salaries were finally raised to Rs 18,000/-. However, the teachers felt that this was not enough and are requesting that they be paid at par with the others along with other incentives that they enjoy.
The teachers, while quoting the principl;e of ‘equal pay for equal work’ maintained that denial to their demand was a gross violation of Article 14 of the Constitution- Right to Equality.
Also pointing out that it is difficult to maintain their families with the limited salary amount of Rs 18,000/-, the teachers urged the government to take up the matter in the Cabinet for consideration in the interest of teachers under the category.