Staff Reporter
SHILLONG:
The state is poised to witness two strikes take off on July 18 by heterogeneous groups as teachers and ambulance staff in protest against the government’s alleged indifference towards redressal of their grievances.
The Meghalaya Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan School Association (MSSASA) will begin their indefinite sit-in in a bid to pressurise the government to give in to their demands.
President of the MSSASA, Aristotle Rymbai, said that the teachers will be sitting on an indefinite strike at the Additional Secretariat Parking Lot from 11.30 am.
Rymbai has invited the other groups to also join the strike.
It may be mentioned that the All Meghalaya SSA Teachers Association (AMSSATA) and All Garo Hills SSA School Teachers Association (AGHSSATA) have temporarily called off their protest, which started here on July 15 at the parking lot near the additional secretariat.
The decision to temporarily call off the strike came after their meeting with the Education department which was held on the same day.
The MSSASA’s four-point demands include release of five months’ salary – February and March of 2021-2022 and April, May and June for 2022-23 – salary enhancement for all 12,451 SSA teachers, more budget provision and to merge all existing SSA teachers from the State Implementation Society to the education department.
During the meeting of the three associations on July 15 with Secretary in-charge Education R Rapthap, the government could not give any assurance to the SSA teachers on their demands, especially the demand for enhancement of salary citing that their demands were being examined.
On the other hand, employees of the GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) will cease work from Monday in protest against the government’s failure to terminate the contract with the company.
The protest will commence from 4 am.
The employees had earlier given a 72-hour deadline but neither the health minister nor the health department invited the leaders of the union for talks on the matter forcing them to go ahead with the stir.
The union had met the joint managing director of the National Health Mission (NHM), who assured that another round of meeting will again be held on Monday. While the union has greed to meet it is not much enthused since NHM is not the authority that can fulfill the employees’ demand.
Accusing the GVK-EMRI of failing to deliver on all fronts in terms of providing quality health services to the people of the state, spokesperson of the union, Roypar Kharraswai, said that their demand for termination of contract with the company was born out of this inadequacy.
Kharraswai also said that notwithstanding the government sanctioning Rs 12 crore to the management, the GVK-EMRI, since 2018, has been indulging in cost-cutting which has affected smooth operation of the emergency services in the state.
The protest will commence from 4 am.
The employees had earlier given a 72-hour deadline but neither the health minister nor the health department invited the leaders of the union for talks on the matter forcing them to go ahead with the stir.
The union had met the joint managing director of the National Health Mission (NHM), who assured that another round of meeting will again be held on Monday. While the union has greed to meet it is not much enthused since NHM is not the authority that can fulfill the employees’ demand.
Accusing the GVK-EMRI of failing to deliver on all fronts in terms of providing quality health services to the people of the state, spokesperson of the union, Roypar Kharraswai, said that their demand for termination of contract with the company was born out of this inadequacy.
Kharraswai also said that notwithstanding the government sanctioning Rs 12 crore to the management, the GVK-EMRI, since 2018, has been indulging in cost-cutting which has affected smooth operation of the emergency services in the state.