All Nagaland Adhoc Teachers’ Group warned of a statewide protest in Kohima if services are not regularised by January 30.
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DIMAPUR — The All Nagaland Adhoc Teachers’ Group (ANATG), 2015 batch, on Tuesday warned of a statewide mobilisation in Kohima if the state government fails to regularise their services by January 30, the deadline set in an ultimatum served earlier this month.
The warning followed an emergency meeting of the ANATG core committee held at the CANSSEA Hall, Kohima, to review the status of its ultimatum submitted on January 7 to the Commissioner and Secretary, School Education and SCERT.
In a press release issued after the meeting, the group said it had decided that failure to meet the demand within the stipulated timeframe would compel it to mobilise its members for a “democratic form of resentment,” which it described as its “last and final stand.”
The committee also directed all members across its 14 units covering 17 districts to comply with the proposed protest call, warning that penalties would be imposed on those who fail to participate. It further resolved to strengthen district units in preparation for the agitation in the event the government does not act on its demand.
The ANATG represents 1,166 adhoc teachers appointed between 1994 and December 2012, including primary, graduate and language teachers, Hindi teachers, carpentry instructors and art teachers. The group has been seeking regularisation of services after its members appeared for written tests, interviews and document verification in 2017 under a regularisation drive notified by the School Education department.
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In its ultimatum, released on Tuesday, the group recalled that despite clearing the suitability tests, its members were not regularised and were instead granted the Sixth Revision of Pay in 2018 following a sit-in protest. It also cited a 2022 hunger strike that led to the signing of a High Powered Committee (HPC) agreement, under which the government had committed to set up the committee within 15 days, submit its recommendations by June 2023 and resolve the issue by December 2023.
The group alleged that the terms of the HPC agreement were breached and that repeated representations to expedite the process yielded no outcome. It further claimed that while regularisation of adhoc employees in other departments had progressed following the introduction of a one-time regularisation policy in 2024, the case of ANATG members remained stalled.
Terming the situation “disheartening,” the group said it felt it was being made a “scapegoat” despite having fulfilled all procedural requirements.
The core committee reiterated that January 30 was its “last and final” deadline for service regularisation and warned that it would launch what it called its “most stringent course of action” if the demand was not met.