TheCable

Over 1000 Indian teachers have threatened to commit suicide on July 26 to protest unpaid salaries.

The agitating teachers claimed that in the last 12 years, the current dispensation in the north-eastern state of Assam, India, has arbitrarily stopped paying more than 12,000 teachers in state-run schools.

They alleged that 3,000 of such teachers have retired, while 91 have committed suicide.

They claimed to have submitted innumerable pleas to the state as well the central administration, but their issue is yet to be solved.

Basanta Neog, secretary of the All Assam salary-deprived assistant teachers association, said around 12,000 teachers, who had been working for 20-24 years, were suspended arbitrarily in 2006.

He added that some of the teachers were given appointments by the then Asom Gana Parishad-led government between the years 1996 and 2001.

“The primary school teachers were given the appointment letters by the state government with a proper financial sanction. However, in 2006, they were declared to be appointed illegally,” he said.

“Teachers were receiving their salaries regularly till 1996. It was stopped for a while but government again resumed our salary from 2001.”

Ramen Saikia, another representative of the association, said: “The Assam government in 2006 stalled our salaries following the declaration of illegal appointment.”

Despite the declaration that their appointment was illegal, these teachers have been teaching classes regularly.