Shillong, Mar 21: The Federation of All School Teachers of Meghalaya (FASToM) has refused further negotiation with the government and threatened to resort to indefinite strike following the delay in fulfilling demands for pay hike and annual increment, among others.
During a general meeting at Malki ground in the city on Monday, FASToM EC member and the Khasi Jaintia Hills Ad-hoc School Teachers’ Association (KJHASTA) president Mayborn Lyngdoh said it wants the government to give deficit status to ad-hoc teachers.
Lyngdoh said the federation had conveyed its demands to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma in August 2019. Sangma had promised to meet the members in November 2019 “but that has not happened till date”.
“We are no longer negotiating with the government… it should negotiate with us. We have told the government what we want, we have bargained with the government based on its terms (and) now it is the government who should listen to our demands,” said Lyngdoh, adding, “Should the government not pay heed to our demands, we will stage an indefinite agitation.”
Monday’s meeting also resolved to seek permission from the district administration for taking out a peace rally on Tuesday.
“We have decided to march to the secretariat and repeat the same agitation held on January 17 and 18, where we will stand in front of the main gate of the secretary till the government consider our demand,” FASToM vice president Diningroy Marwein said.
The federation members said they had met Director of School Education and Literacy Ambrose Marak in January and tabled a new proposal that included pay hike by Rs 18,000 and annual increment of 5% irrespective of lower primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary.
