Agitation by contractual teachers outside the Meghalaya secretariat here demanding the restoration of service continued on Friday, a day after the police took action to prevent them from storming the secretariat.
The Meghalaya police faced criticism for lobbing teargas shells and lathi-charged the teachers on Thursday.
According to the city Superintendent of Police (SP) – Vivek Syiem, “We had to use mild force and burst tear gas shells to stop the agitators from storming the secretariat, a place where Section 144 CrPC is in force.”
However, he denied that police had lathi-charged the teachers and injured some of them when they stormed the secretariat on Thursday accompanied by their family members, children and members of social organizations.
Pregnant women teachers were reportedly among the agitators and the police action against them has drawn severe criticism from all quarters.
Besides, the Opposition TMC has condemned the incident. Party leader and Opposition Chief Whip George B Lyngdoh said “The government has gone deaf and dumb. I think it is the collective responsibility of the entire cabinet to ensure safety and to provide livelihood.”
Hundreds of educators are fighting for job restoration under the auspices of the Meghalaya Government Lower Primary Contractual Teachers Association. More than 800 of them had their employment terminated two years prior due to their inability to pass the Meghalaya Teachers Eligibility Test (TET).
They have been staging their indefinite protest at Barik, about 200 meters away from the secretariat for the past one month.
The protesting teachers declined to meet with the state government and asked the local district magistrates to let them know that they would only end their protest if the government issued a decree ordering their reinstatement.
They have returned invitations of the state Education Minister Lakhmen Rymbui for talks on Friday evening and chief secretary D P Wahlang for talks.
The Association leader Birbor Riangtem has said, “Our clear message to the government is if it wants us to call off this agitation, it should order reinstatement of our services as we want to go back to our schools.”
He said the Association has met Chief Minister Conrad Sangma seven times but there has been no positive outcome even after two years.
The government has not indicated that it will develop a different approach to address the problem of contractual teachers.
Riangtem condemned the “highhandedness of the police” in bursting tear gas shells. “Using tear gas is a violation of our human rights. We are not terrorists, we are teachers. We were marching peacefully but the police and district administration blocked us and started bursting tear gas shells despite being informed about the presence of our children and pregnant teachers”.
Its worthy to note that the incident occurred on Thursday afternoon, when the group of teachers under the banner of Meghalaya Government Lower Primary School Contractual Teachers’ Association (MGLPSCTA) alongwith their family members, including pregnant women and children; commenced their march from Kiang Nangbah Monument to Secretariat.
However, as they approached near the secretariat, the police lobbed three tear-gas shells at the agitating teachers to prevent them from staging protest outside the gate of state secretariat.
Responding to the tragic move, the Voice of People Party (VPP) on Thursday demanded the resignation of Meghalaya’s Home Minister – Lahkmen Rymbui, who also serves as the Minister-in-charge of state Education Department.
