GUWAHATI: The Assam State Primary Teachers' Association (ASPTA) on Friday, August 7 announced an indefinite sit-in protest in Guwahati from August 12, escalating its agitation over the proposed change in the salary disbursement mechanism for Special Recruitment Drive (SRD) teachers regularised under the Directorate of Elementary Education (DEE).
ALSO READ: Kamrup (M) Denies Ordering Guwahati Bars, Restaurants to Offer Pick-and-Drop Services
The announcement came after SRD teachers staged a one-hour protest in Biswanath, where they opposed the reported move to shift their salary disbursement system from the FinAssam platform to the SNA-SPARSH module.
Speaking to the media during the protest, one of the teachers said the agitation was not against delayed salary payments but against the proposed change in the salary disbursement mechanism and the uncertainty it could create regarding the future status of SRD teachers. The teacher said discussions with Education Minister Ranoj Pegu had failed to produce a satisfactory outcome. According to the teacher, the minister had maintained that there were no issues with salary payments and that salaries could even be released the next day. However, the association maintained that its concerns were centred on the mode of salary disbursement rather than the timing of payments.
The protesters also submitted memoranda addressed to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Governor of Assam, the Union Education Minister and Samagra Shiksha, Government of India, seeking intervention in the matter.
Meanwhile, more than 100 teachers under the ASPTA staged a separate one-hour demonstration outside the District Education Officer's office in Silchar on Friday, demanding the withdrawal of the order making the SNA-SPARSH module mandatory for salary disbursal of VO-SRD teachers.
Holding placards and banners, the protesters raised slogans against the Assam government and the state's Education Minister, alleging that the new system would create administrative hurdles and could affect timely salary payments. The association argued that linking salaries to the SNA-SPARSH module would add unnecessary procedural complications for VO-SRD teachers and said repeated representations to the authorities had not resulted in any concrete action.
Responding to the issue, Assam Education Minister Dr Ranoj Pegu said around 15,000 contractual teachers under Samagra Shiksha had already been regularised and are now permanent employees under the Directorate of Elementary Education. He dismissed concerns that changes in the treasury system could alter their employment status, calling such claims "completely false." Pegu said the teachers would continue to receive all benefits provided by the Assam government and clarified that the recent delay in salary disbursement was due only to technical reasons. He added that the pending salaries would be cleared within two to three days and asserted that there was no issue regarding their regular status.
With the announcement of the indefinite sit-in from August 12, the teachers' association has indicated that the agitation will intensify unless the government withdraws the proposed salary disbursement mechanism.
The protest is part of a series of agitation programmes announced by the Assam State Primary Teachers' Association on August 5. In a statement, ASPTA President Nilakshi Gogoi and General Secretary Ratul Chandra Goswami said nearly 15,000 teachers had resigned from their posts under Samagra Shiksha to join the Directorate of Elementary Education as regular teachers despite accepting a salary reduction of Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 per month.
The association said these teachers have been receiving salaries in accordance with the terms of their appointment letters through the existing system and expressed concern that shifting to the SNA-SPARSH module could adversely affect their service conditions and salary disbursement process.