IMPHAL: With government schoolteachers in Manipur intensifying their ongoing stir seeking implementation of all clauses in the Sixth Central Pay, the state has decided to engage private teachers as invigilators for the coming matriculation and Class XII examinations.
The teachers have been on an indefinite relay hunger strike since January 19 and 239 of them have been arrested and sent to jail on the charge of trying to commit suicide.
While the matriculation examination will begin from March 25, the Class XII examination is scheduled to be held from March 16. Besides deciding not to join duty in these examinations, the government schoolteachers, who are agitating under the banner of the Council of Teachers Association, have abstained from joining the ongoing census operation. Manipur irrigation and flood control minister N Biren Singh said the government would engage private schoolteachers as invigilators for the coming examinations to ensure that the the students did not suffer.
"Though the government teachers are on a strike, the crucial matriculation and Class XII examinations cannot be deferred," he said.
On the demands of the striking teachers, the minister said, "In the entire region, only Arunachal Pradesh has implemented the 6th Central Pay scale. As a result, the state has suffered a deficit of crores."
Last week, chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, who also holds the finance portfolio, said his government wanted to implement the teachers' demand but could not because of paucity of funds.
In the meantime, the Council of Teachers' Association said in a statement that the government's "apathetic attitude" towards the striking teachers "amounts to violation of their rights".