SHILLONG: The Federation of All School Teachers of Meghalaya (FASTOM) on Thursday called off its indefinite sit-in at Malki Ground after the state government assured a four-point benefits package for nearly 10,000 Ad-Hoc teachers. The agitation, which began on September 22, ended following a meeting between FASTOM leaders and Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma at his official residence.
FASTOM vice-president Sanborn Jungai said, “At the meeting with the Chief Minister, we highlighted the problem faced by the Ad-Hoc teachers for decades.” He added that the delegation reiterated the long-standing demand to upgrade Ad-Hoc teachers to the Deficit System of Deficit Pattern.
Sangma, who also holds the finance portfolio, ruled out an upgrade, saying, “The Chief Minister being the head of the state government, he told us that if we are going to upgrade you to a deficit system, there are criteria and if we are going to follow these criteria, majority of the teachers will lose the benefits of this upgradation.” Instead, the Chief Minister proposed alternative measures.
Jungai said, “The Ad-Hoc school teachers, they will also get their basic pay from now onwards, this basic pay will be based on seniority basis.” He explained that “there will be different slabs based on years of experience.”
He further stated, “Second agenda that we discuss is regarding the Dearness Pay, that is the DA, which we are going to get annually fix every year. This DA will help the teachers with the increase rate of inflation that we are going to face in future.”
On social security, Jungai said, “And the third benefits that we the Ad-Hoc teachers will receive, is the Central Provident Fund. What we call the CPF of which we are going to get eight percent from the government and eight percent will be contributed by the teachers.”
The fourth measure will cover retirement benefits. “And lastly we also discussed on one agenda. That is the death cum retirement gratitude. When we come to this gratitude the teachers federation the leaders, we had a consensus among us that the teachers will contribute to this fund so that we will get it post retirement,” Jungai said.
He clarified that “these four agendas or four benefits, it will be implemented by the government that is with effect from the next financial year. That is 1st April, 2026. And the state government has sought from the Federation, three months time to prepare the basic, to prepare the DA and to prepare the CPF, and then the decision how much per teacher will get, it will be taken by the government before Christmas.”
