Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, NOVEMBER 26
Barely a week left for the forthcoming mega Hornbill Festival, Nagaland is witnessing a number of agitations and protests by various organizations and unions for the past weeks. Particularly, the Education Department has been embroiled in numerous controversies due to nonpayment of salaries to teachers appointed under SSA, RMSA and CSS.
The agitation called by All Nagaland Aggrieved Hindi Teachers Association (2012-13 batches) started in a tense atmosphere today at the premises of the Directorate of School Education, Kohima demanding immediate release of pending salaries and arrears for the past five months.
The agitation saw the participation of hundreds of Hindi teachers from all the eleven districts of the State. The association has 1379 Hindi teachers. The police force with its tactical unit and mahilas were stationed at the site for any eventuality.
Dismayed by the failure of government officials to release the pending salaries and arrears, the aggrieved teachers shouted slogans - ‘State government is a thief’, ‘We are not asking the government’s money, we are asking only what is rightfully ours earned through hard work and labour’, ‘Fulfill our demands’, ‘Are you sleeping for the past six months’ etc.
Some of the placards also read ‘Delay work invites problems’ ‘Don’t give harassment to the teachers’ ‘Negligence gives troubles to others’ ‘A hungry man is an angry man’ ‘We want justice’ etc.
A member of the association said that they are compelled to fight for what is due to them and have been deprived of for a long time, despite repeated appeals and memorandum submitted to the concerned department.
‘Our demands are simple; pay our salaries which are yet to be released without futher delay. The department’s failure to address the issue of the suffering teachers is a reflection of administrative incompetence’ said ANAHTA general secretary, Sentimenla.
‘The untold suffering of simple teacher whose salary has not been paid for five months cannot be comforted with empty assurances’ added a member. Another said that directly or indirectly the State government is disrespecting the national language by torturing the Hindi teachers, and asked ‘For how long should we suffer?’ Can we feed our children with stones?
In his address to the aggrieved Hindi teachers, NSF Education Secretary Imtiyapang expressed sympathy saying it was very unfortunate that such situation arose when students are preparing for exams.
He also requested the teachers to come to a negotiating table with the government stating that living in a democratic and civilized society, we need to sometime rationalize and reason out things sensibly. He also assured of NSF’s support so that teachers are paid.
Meanwhile clarifying its stand, Directorate of School Education Accounts Officer, Tsuren Odyuo said it has not delayed anything on its part, but said there are some process and procedures which are beyond the control of the department and the State government as well.
He also informed that the salary sanctioned by the Government of India during 2014 got exhausted in the month of February 2015, and as such to tide over the teachers’ problem, the state government has released 14 crore and 15 lakh rupees from its fund out of benevolence.
Citing some norms and procedures, he said the department had submitted the UC to the Accountant General much before time on February 4, which otherwise goes only in the month of March. The audit certificate has been issued on June 18, without which the proposal cannot be forwarded to central government. The proposal, he said has been personally submitted to the government on India on July 6.
Unfortunately, he said the person who deals with the CSS salaries has been transferred, and there was no one looking after the salary for the last 5-6 months, and thereby Mizoram also had not been paid for 8 months.
He also said that though the sanction order has been obtained from the central government on November 9, it still has not received the money in the state account which takes normally a week or so, and that the department has no control over this.
As per the Government of India Ministry of Human Resources Development, Department of School Education & Literacy letter to the Department of Higher Education, MHRD New Delhi (dated 9th November, 2015), it has sanctioned the payment of grant of salary of Hindi Teachers for the year financial 2015-16 amounting to Rs 34,79,62,000/- (Thirty four crore seventy nine lakh sixty two thousand) to the Education Secretary Government of Nagaland for incurring expenditure on Hindi Teachers appointed under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of appointment of languages teachers.
He therefore, appealed that aggrieved teachers to understand its problem and give some time to solve the issue, which he said is only a matter of time now.
Meanwhile, the aggrieved teachers have been demanding that salaries are paid today itself, however after a long negotiation among the agitation leaders, NSF representatives and the directorate officials, the department had promised to release all the pending salaries on or before December 11.
Though the teachers were at first reluctant to accept the proposal, it has been finally agreed to comply with, and the agitation ended peacefully without any further incidents.
