Assam: Over 100 govt teachers seek President nod to end lives

GUWAHATI: Upset over non-payment of salaries for the last eight years, over 100 government school teachers of the elementary level from Sivasagar and Lakhimpur districts on Tuesday wrote to the President, seeking his permission to commit suicide.
These teachers were appointed between 1991 and 2001 when Congress and AGP were in power in the state. But later, the state government stopped paying their salaries, citing anomalies in the appointment procedure.Finding it difficult to run their families after serving without pay for years, these teachers gave January 20 ultimatum to the state government to clear their dues.
"We are going through a horrible phase of our life. After rendering service for so many years, disbursement of our salaries was stopped from 2012. If there were loopholes in the appointment process, it is the government which is responsible for it. The government appointed us in jobs and gave all the facilities of government employees for years," said Basanta Neog, general secretary of Sadou Asom Betan Banchita Karmarata Prathamik Sikshak Santha - the association of teachers which has been protesting to get the dues of unpaid teachers.
Neog rued that despite intimating the chief minister, education minister and finance minister about their plight on several occasions, nothing positive emerged. He said they got their jobs after applying for the posts against which government issued an advertisement. But when the salary was blocked, they were categorised as "excess teachers" by the education department.
Hemanjali Dutta Bhuyan, who heads the organization of about 12,000 unpaid teachers from various districts of Assam said, "Our dream of a secured future has been shattered. There is no desire within us to live. So, we have written to the President of India to allow us to kill ourselves."
Sources in the state education department said despite the anomalies reported in the joining of teachers, the state government is considering their case with compassion. However, as far as clearance of their payment is concerned, a green light from the finance department is awaited. They further added that while some of these teachers were appointed without "proper approval" of their posts, in some other cases proportionately more teachers were appointed against certain number of approved posts.
When contacted, commissioner and secretary of the elementary education department, Preetom Saikia, said the appointments of the teachers, whose salary have been blocked, took place without proper approval of the authorities concerned.