Shillong, Nov 24: Meghalaya government is in a state of bother as it is not in a position to regularize of the services of over 12,547 Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers nor can it find a long term solution to pay regular salaries to these teachers.
The teachers, on the other hand, have decided to move the court if the state government fails to comply with their demands by November 30, 2021.
Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui on Wednesday told reporters, “It is not a simple decision. It is a major decision which you have to look at not only today-tomorrow as there is a long term impact. It is very easy to say yes but to implement, nobody could implement.”
He said the government’s door is always open for dialogue but the teachers are already aware of the constraints. He also maintained that the state government is not shying away from its responsibility be it for teachers’ salary or for regularization of their services, but it currently doesn’t have the financial capacity to fulfill the demands.
The problem lies with the recruitment of SSA teachers, who were not directly appointed by the state government. “Who recruited them? It is not that they are directly recruited by the government, how will you regularize? It is not a question of simple regularization, the state government will have to see what the issue at hand is and how to solve it…whatever we do, we will do within the parameters of the law,” he said.
The education minister also admitted that it will be very tough for the state government to resolve issues related to the teachers in Meghalaya.
Meanwhile, the Minister informed that the department is ready to release the pending salary of the SSA teachers following the Centre’s sanctioning of the funds amounting to Rs 59 crore.
