CM appeals to teachers

SHILLONG, MAY 31: Chief Minister Conrad Kongal Sangma today said that the state government is waiting for the education department to submit a report on the financial implication for extending the new revise pay to nearly 7,000 deficit school teachers in the state.

Appealing to the teachers not to take up any agitations, Conrad said, “I want to assure them (teachers) that we are serious about this and we are going to take this up and they should continue with their work.”

Speaking to reporters at the sidelines of a function held in the city here, the chief minister said that may be it is his fault that he had assured them earlier that the government would be able to do it within 10 days.

However stating that he don’t see any reason why the teachers need to go for agitations, he said because it is just a technical delay in term of the education department making sure that the calculations are in place.

“Now, the Cabinet is waiting for a report from the department to come in and as soon as the report comes in will take the decision,” he assured.

On the other hand, the chief minister informed that last time, the department could not submit the report because it is over burden with various issues.

“Last time when we had the meeting on first week of May we were supposed to have cabinet meeting on 8-9 of May and I intended to take up the issue on that meeting but sadly the education department being very busy as you know many issues are plaguing the department today, they were not able to compile the necessary information which I have to respect as it is not easy there are many teachers and it is massive calculation that needs to take place. Because of that the delay has taken place and there are no other reasons,” he said.

One of the reasons cited by the chief minister was the issue related to the CBI inquiry on the education scam where he pointed out that daily the officials are busy with preparing documentations.

“I think there is a misunderstanding they feel may be we are sitting on it but I would like to inform that we are not there is procedural delay simply because the exercise is so massive and department is really over burden,” he stated.

By Our Reporter