Not paying any heed to the appeal of Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh, agitating teachers of government colleges in Manipur are all set to intensify their stir.
“The government college teachers are all set to take mass casual leaves on February 12 and 13. It will be followed by class boycott from February 17,” Federation of Government Colleges Teachers Associations (FEGOCTA) general secretary Dr N Somorendro Singh said in a statement. These decisions were decided at the collective sit-in-protests cum meeting of government college teachers organised by FEGOCTA at D M College of Science, Imphal on February 6, he reminded.
The college teachers are on strike under the aegis of Federation of College Federation of Government College Teachers Associations (FEGOCTA). The teachers have been pressing the state government to adopt the 7th UGC Pay and Regulations 2018 which the state government had already agreed to implement in principle. The teachers have been staging sit-in-protests in their respective colleges for the last 10 days.
The general secretary of the association said that the teachers “did not and do not want agitations in the past and present”. As such, teachers have been requesting the state government to pass orders adopting the 7th UGC Policy and Regulations, 2018 at the earliest to avoid any disturbance in academic atmosphere in the colleges, he also said. “Unless the orders of 7th UGC Pay and Regulations, 2018 are issued, the present agitations will continue as resolved in FEGOCTA executive committee meetings,” he added.
The statement of the FEGOCTA came in the backdrop of a statement given by chief minister N Biren Singh in the state Assembly in the ongoing budget session. The chief minister appealed to the striking FEGOCTA to hold talks with the government in the larger interest of the student community. The chief minister also urged the teachers to review their decision of boycotting classes considering the present economic situation of the state and hold talks with the government to bring a solution.