School teachers rally at Tura

From A Correspondent

Tura, Nov 16: SSA school teachers under the aegis of All Garo Hills SSA School Teachers’ Association (AGHSSASTA) took out a rally here on Thursday demanding payment of their pending arrears as well as salaries while also seeking equal pay for the 4th teacher of all SSA Schools.

The rally began at about 11:30 am from the Tura Government College before ending at the West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner’s office. Thousands of teachers under the banner of AGHSSASTA were part of the protest. “We have been requesting the government for long on the matter with our list of demands, but the government has not paid any heed to it. Therefore, we decided to rally to register our protest,” said the association’s publicity secretary, TD Sangma.

“How can we work without money for food for our families and that too for so long? Our arrears have accumulated over the past two years and are now eight months due. This has been causing us huge hardships and this is also affecting our work with our students. After all we cannot teach with empty stomachs. The government should understand our plight and listen and act on our genuine demands,” added Sangma The teachers have raised four demands that include payment of their past three months’ salaries, pending arrears over the past eight months, equal pay to all teachers (including the 4th SSA teacher and offline courses for 2nd year of D.El.Ed.   The protestors later submitted a memorandum listing their demands to Chief Minister Mukul Sangma through the Deputy Commissioner.