THE IMPASSE PERSISTS
Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, NOVEMBER 13
The meeting between representatives of aggrieved Hindi teachers and officials of the department of School Education on Thursday to discuss the Hindi teachers’ pending salary issue failed to yield fruitful results and the former has reaffirmed that it will continue its agitation in the form of picketing the district education offices across the state.
The teachers are demanding for immediate release of their six months pending salaries, implementation of 6th RoP with arrears, and regular payment of monthly salary.
When contacted, a member of the All Nagaland Aggrieved Hindi Teachers said no solution or agreement was arrived at Thursday’s meeting. He said the education department officials tried to reason with the teachers on the financial position of the state and assured that they would negotiate to obtain at least two months’ salaries under 5th RoP for the aggrieved teachers, citing it will take time to verify the papers for 1379 teachers for implementation of 6th RoP. The teachers, however, are said to have remained firm on its demands.
Moreover, he informed that only the representatives from Phek, Dimapur and Kohima districts managed to attend the meeting since the meeting notice was relayed late for far-flung districts’ representatives to arrive on time. “We could not take the decision by ourselves without consulting other districts, so we could not give any reply to their (education department) offer, acceptance or refusal,” he stated. He further said all the district representatives will be meeting in a few days’ time to discuss the issue, but meanwhile, the agitation will continue.
Meanwhile, the All Nagaland Aggrieved Hindi Teachers Associations (ANAHTA) 2012-13 batches said stands by the statement of ACAUT Nagaland that Rs. 2000 and Rs. 2500 amounting to several lakhs of rupees was deducted from the aggrieved Hindi teachers by the DoSE.
The association is well aware that teachers salaries were deducted from the respective DEOs in the districts and therefore, it is up to the DoSE to enquire into the whole matter and bring guilty officials to book if at all the departmental heads are unaware of this gross misconduct as claimed by the department. The issue of deduction of salaries at source is a matter of serious concern and this aspect should be thoroughly investigated.
On the issue of NPS, it is a fact that despite the deduction of 10% of our salaries to be deposited into our PRAN account, there is nil balance on account of which ACAUT Nagaland has rightly raised the issue.
