Shillong, Nov 18: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday said the state government cannot give any commitment as far as the demand for regularizing the services of over 12,547 Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers in the state is concerned.
“From the state government side it will not be possible to give any kind of commitment right now for any kind of regularization for the SSA school teachers,” Sangma told reporters while reacting to a query if the government would examine the demand.
Stating that regularization is a completely different aspect, Sangma said the SSA program was a program started by the Government of India on areas where different schools were not present.
“Therefore, it was a program completely financed 90% by the Government of India so it cannot be linked to regularization by the state government,” he maintained.
Apart from protesting against delay in releasing of the salary, the Meghalaya SSA Schools Association (MSSASA) has been demanding for regularization of all SSA teachers and to implement the pay scales according to the prescribed norms of the Right to Education (RTE).
When asked, the chief minister however said the state government can only move forward on the matter if the central government says that the funding will continue and that there will be regularization from the Government of India side on this entire SSA programme.
“So if the central government goes for a proposal and moves to regularize them at the national level then definitely it will be a positive move,” he asserted.
Regarding the issue of salary, the chief minister said that the state government is in a discussion mode with the Government of India requesting the release of more funds
“But as and when the funds are being released, we are releasing it to the SSA teachers and will continue to do that in the future,” he said.
“We understand the problems they are facing but this is a very complex situation as I said the entire country is suffering right now not just Meghalaya state but let me assure that let us try our best to find a solution to this and try to help our SSA teachers,” Sangma added.
