Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, December 03 2010:
Members of All Manipur Hills Teachers' Association (AMHTA) today threatened to launch and indefinite hunger strike and a court arrest stir in support of the cease work strike of the teachers launched under the banner of the Council of Teachers' Association (COTA).
The cease work strike has entered 18 days today.
Addressing a press conference held at COTA office, Keishampat today, AMHTA president Jatungeng Ingbu said that teachers of government schools, right from the elementary to the higher secondary level are supporting the cease work strike of the COTA.
As government has failed to give a positive response to the teachers' demand, AMHTA joining hand with COTA has decided to intensify the ongoing strike.
COTA has reminded that during the cease work strike of the JAC of AMTUC and AMGEO demanding implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission in toto, COTA had also launched a court arrest stir in support.
The strike of COTA was suspended after the Chief Minister agreed to implement the revised sixth pay bands in toto to its employees with arrears of six months.
At that time, Chief Minister sought 45 days for finalizing the pay structure of the employees but over six months have passed since the agreement was signed, and the government is yet to finalize the pay structure of teachers even though talks between government and employees' bodies have been held on various occasions, he said.
COTA and other teachers' bodies do not wish to resort to any kind of strikes considering the welfare of the students.
But government neglect despite repeated pleas to address to their demand, they were left with no choice but to launch a strike, Jatungeng said.
With no response from the state government even after the cease work strike has entered 18 days, they have decided to launch an indefinite hunger strike he said cautioning that any untoward incident arising out of the hunger strike should be the sole responsibility of the government.