Adhoc teachers express full faith on HRDD committee

GANGTOK, 31 Oct: All Sikkim Ad-hoc Teachers’ [ASAT] has expressed full faith in the committee constituted by the Human Resource Development Department to address issues raised by them. Members of the association stated that their next course of action would be based on the report that the committee submits to the State Government.
It may be mentioned that the HRDD has constituted a committee headed by the Special Secretary who met representatives of the protesting ad-hoc teachers on Monday and is expected to submit its report on Saturday.
Addressing a press conference today, ASAT general secretary, Asish Lepcha said that the representatives have placed all their issues with the committee and the Association is hopeful that the committee’s report would be in favour of all ad-hoc teachers.
The ongoing dharna and hunger strike will continue till the submission of the report, he added. Prakash Sharma, Khemraj Thansin, Prakash Dahal, Ashish Lepcha and Sandeep Jairu are on hunger strike.
On students being affected by the strike, they stated that they have been performing their duties till now and were forced to call a strike when the Department continued to ignore their demands.
“When no one heard our grievances, we were compelled to take this step as the future of around 2,300 ad-hoc teachers is at stake,” they said.
“According to the Indian Constitution no one can be employed on ad-hoc basis for a long period otherwise it has to take steps for regularization,” they said. “If there is shortage of teachers then why has the government been appointing teachers on ad-hoc basis instead of regular employment every year?” they questioned.
They further said that the first point of the ruling SDF party’s 2009 manifesto assures regularization of all ad-hoc teachers which has not been fulfilled till now.
Mr. Lepcha stated that some antisocial elements have been trying to disrupt the movement by spreading rumours and further urged all ad-hoc teachers not to believe any such rumours and directly contact the Association in case of any doubts.
The association further mentioned that they will not be celebrating Diwali this year.