Shillong, May 11: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday assured to look into the demand of enhancement of salary by Federation of All Schools of Meghalaya (FASTOM). He, however, stated that the demand entails financial implication that runs into hundreds of crores and he will discuss this with the finance department.

He was reacting to the ongoing protest staged by the banner of the Federation of All Schools of Meghalaya (FASTOM) demanding to enhance the salary of all adhoc teachers by Rs 18,000.

“It (salary enhancement) is running into hundreds of crores. Therefore, it is not a decision that one can take especially with the Covid situation and financial challenges that we faced (as a state),” Sangma told reporters adding that “I will be calling them (adhoc teachers) for discussion to figure out how to move forward on this.”

“Once I have a meeting with all the officials and see what the options are I will call the finance department and discuss the financial (aspect of it) and see how we can move forward,” he said.

The Chief Minister also mentioned that the government cannot simply say that it will take one decision and expect that it will not have a multiplier effect on the other sectors keeping in mind the financial implications and financial challenges.

“So all those aspects have to be looked into and therefore, it is not a simple decision to be taken because of the impact it has had financially. As I said it is not a matter of one or two crore it is hundreds and hundreds of crores with just one decision that we take,” he stated.