Govt college teachers begin class boycott stir in Manipur, complete cease work strike from Feb 18

No class conducted in almost all the government colleges in Manipur as the indefinite class boycott stir of the teachers commenced on Wednesday.

The Federation of Government College Teachers’ Association (FEGOCTA) under which the teachers are launching the strike announced to intensify the stir with a cease work strike. The teachers are on strike since January 28 demanding implementation of 7th UGC Pay and Regulations, 2018 in the state. They had recently reaffirmed to continue the strike until government issues orders adopting the UGC policy.

FEGOCTA, in a statement, announced the commencement of the class boycott stir from Wednesday onward. Cease work including boycott of classes, academic and administrative activities will start from February 18 onwards, it stated. The cease work will be continued until the orders of 7th UGC Pay and Regulations, 2018 are issued, it added.

The statement said that the teachers were compelled to take such an extreme step as their organisation did not receive any positive response from the government despite more than 15 days of agitations. 

The decision to intensify the agitation was taken in the emergency executive committee meeting of FEGOCTA held on February 16. The meeting further decided to fight collectively in the event of victimization of any teacher for participating in the agitations for 7th UGC Pay by the authorities. 

After getting no response from the government despite repeated reminders to their agreed demand and January 27 deadline, the teachers under the aegis of FEGOCTA commenced the strike from January 28 and with sit-in-protests from January 29 onwards. 

The ongoing agitation was compelled by the government’s failure to issue orders of 7th UGC Pay and Regulations, 2018 despite the state cabinet’s approval on August 6, 2020, the FEGOCTA alleged.

The FEGOCTA has been demanding to implement the UGC policy in the state since December, 2018. FEGOCTA once again appealed to the chief minister for his immediate intervention and issue of the necessary orders in the interest of higher education. 

For the other employees of the Manipur government, 7th Pay had already been implemented long ago, it added.

Meanwhile, teachers of various colleges in the state while boycotting the classes of the day, continued to stage sit-in-protest in their respective colleges showing solidarity to FEGOCTA’s demand.

NNN