SHILLONG, Nov 27: Congress MLA, PT Sawkmie, has contended that the approach of chief minister and education minister to the issue of aggrieved Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers is negative.
Arguing that there is a lack of political will to alleviate the woes of Meghalaya SSA teachers, Sawkmie has suggested the state government to regularise the posts of the SSA teachers in a phase-wise manner.
The suggestion comes in the wake of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui ruling out the possibility of regularisation of posts of SSA teachers in the state.
Admitting that it is a herculean task for the government to regularise the posts of all 12,000 SSA teachers at one go, the Congress leader said that the government can instead regularise their services in a phase-wise manner.
“The Government of Assam has regularised the services of SSA teachers, and if other states can do it, why not Meghalaya? I don’t see a political will from the government in this regard,” Sawkmie said while speaking to The Shillong Times on Saturday.
He also questioned the rationale behind state government coughing up Rs 2,000 crore to boost educational infrastructure when the teachers are in a state of dying from starvation.
Casting aspersions on the state government over the non-disbursement of pending salaries to the SSA teachers, he appealed to the government to release, out of compassion, three months’ salary from other sources.
Recalling that there were no protests from teachers when Congress-led UPA government was in the Centre, he rued the contemporary state of affairs.
“Salary for two months is not enough. I urge the chief minister to contribute to their (SSA teachers) salary from other sources,” he said.
It may be mentioned that SSA teachers have been demanding release of their five months’ pending salary. The state government had, however, assured that two months’ salary will be doled out to the SSA teachers after receiving funds from the central government.
