Correspondent
Kohima, March 9
Not accepting the clarifications issued by the Commissioner and Secretary, School Education Department, the Nagaland SSA Teachers’ Association (NSSATA) today said it will stick to its decision to boycott the schools from March 10.
The NSSATA officials affirmed that the SSA teachers will not be attending schools starting tomorrow until their demands are fulfilled. They also said they will meet Governor Dr Ashwani Kumar and apprise him about entire episode leading to the agitation by NSSATA and seek his intervention for early fulfillment of their demands by the State government.
Meanwhile, in reply to the clarification given by the Commissioner & Secretary, department of School Education, T Imkonglemba Ao on teachers’ salaries published in the local dailies dated 9th March 2014, the NSSATA has issued the following clarifications and also questioned the authority on the following grounds:
DIVERSION OF FUNDS: The Association has not in single instance cited or questioned the authority on the diversion of funds. However, we would like to question the authority that if the concerned authority did not divert the SSA Funds then why were the salaries of October and November, 2013, released only in the month of February and March 2014 respectively. For instance, October 2013 salary for districts of Kiphire, Mon, Tuensang was released only in the month of February 2014. Similarly, the commissioner and secretary have claimed that the salary has been cleared till November 2013, however we would like to clarify that the finance order Vide Order No. BUD/11-31/201-12 for the release of November 2013 salary was sanctioned and passed only on the 26th of February 2014. In addition, the November 2013 salary has not been received. Even the arrears for the year 2013 are still pending.
The Commissioner & Secretary also disclosed that the SSA Mission led by the Commissioner & Secretary are currently camped at Delhi to pursue release of fund, however the association would like to state that this should have been done way before.
The association would like to clarify that SSA teachers 2010-2013 are not supposed to be treated as any other flagship programmes practiced in other states of India. Our appointment was done through proper channel with the approval of Cabinet, Finance Department and P & AR of Government undertaking. Therefore, the question of comparison with other states does not arise. We were appointed as regular state government employees as stated clearly in our appointment order. And so the SSA teachers should ‘be absorbed under the non-plan category.
Regarding the request of the DoSE to call off our agitation, we would like to state that we stand firm in our decision and will continue with our agitation until our demands are being fulfilled as stated in our earlier publication as we have been receiving false assurances since the beginning of the last academic session. Any untoward incident or hardships meted out to the SSA teachers and the educational system as a whole shall be the sole responsibility of the state government.
The press release was signed by NSSATA president Vesechol Chaya and general secretary Samina Meru.
