SHILLONG, AUG 19: The Meghalaya Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Schools Association (MSSASA) on Monday has said that they will continue to demand for their rights and will not compromise with the government or the non-teaching staff.
His statement came following the non-release of the salary for July to over 12,000 SSA teachers due to the indefinite sit-in-demonstration staged by the non-teaching staff for the past 20 days.
The non-teaching staff have been demanding 80 per cent salary enhancement.Speaking to reporters, MSSASA president Aristotle C Rymbai said, “Whether it is with the state government or whether it is with the non-teaching staff, we (MSSASA) are not ready to compromise as far as the SSA teachers’ rights are concerned. We will continue to demand for our rights come what may.”
“There are associations, which claimed themselves to be representing the SSA teachers, who are saying that it is okay if one month salary is delayed since in the past they could wait on 4-5 months pending salary. However, we want to clarify that the MSSASA during those times did not sit idle on the issue. In fact in July 2022, we had staged a massive protest following which the state government had invited us for talks and agreed to find out ways and means to ensure regular release of SSA teachers’ salary. Due to this, we are now getting a regular salary,” he said.
He also thanked the MDA II government for streamlining the entire process to ensure the regular release of salary to our SSA teachers, Rymbai said. Earlier this month, the MSSASA president said the members were shocked to learn that their July salaries were withheld by the non-teaching staff due to the ongoing protest for salary enhancement even though the state had already sanctioned the funds.
Stating that the MSSASA is not against their case, he said, “The non-teaching staff have every right to protest as per Article 19 of the Constitution of India, however, their protest has affected the rights of the SSA teachers to a great extent by depriving them of their salary. Accordingly, the non-teaching staff have violated the Article 21 and Article 300 A of the Constitution which clearly stated that nobody can violate the rights of other people.”He said in view of this, the association has demanded the state government to find out ways and means to solve the matter and ensure the immediate release of the salary of the SSA teachers for the month of July.
“I am happy to inform you that the SPD has informed the association that his office has taken up measures to release the salary of the SSA teachers within this week,” Rymbai added.
