Meghalaya SSA School Association (MSSASA) calls off strike by teachers

SHILLONG, Sept 20: A day after calling for a state-wide strike involving boycotting of duty by SSA teachers, the Meghalaya SSA School Association (MSSASA) on Thursday has decided to call off their agitation program as the government has assured them to release their pending salary by next week.

It may be mentioned that the teacher’s body had announced a two-day leave en masse on September 24 and 25 to protest the nonchalance of the state government and the Ministry of Human Resources Development in the payment of their salary and other dues for the past five months.

Addressing reporters, president of MSSASA Aristotle C Rymbai said, “The Education Minister has also clarified that the funds for paying the salary to SSA teachers amounting to Rs 123 crore has been released by the Central Government to the State Government and today the Government has assured us that our pending five month salary which we have been demanding will be released next week.”

He informed that the pending salary to be released will be from the month of April-August 2018.

“After receiving the assurance from the government we held an emergency central executive committee meeting and had taken a decision to call off our agitation program both the first phase and second phase,” he said.

He also urged all the SSA teachers to go to their school and fulfill their duties on the two days in which the agitation was called as the government has given the assurance to release the pending salary of the teachers.

Rymbai also informed that the government has told them that the montly salary will remain the same for Lower Primary Rs. 19, 044 and for Upper Primary teacher Rs. 20, 493.

The MSSASA has also condemned the statement made by Defender Lamare general secretary of All Meghalaya SSA School Teacher Association (AMSSASTA) earlier this month accusing the MSSASA president Aristotle C Rymbai of being an agent of the present Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government.

In this connection, Rymbai informed that in a CEC meeting held on September 13, the association has decided to demand a clarification from Lamare on his accusation against me and to produce documents and evidence to prove his statement.

“Lamare must justify his claims and come up with proper proof and evidence to show that I am an agent of the government within one week,” he said adding that if he cannot provide evidence within one week then Lamare should withdraw his statement by giving an apology for his statement through the various media outlets. He said if the general secretary of AMSSASTA does not come up with proper proof to back up his accusation within a week then MSSASA will be forced to send a legal notice to him.