Meghalaya: Contractual Teachers' Association storms into state's secretariat building

The Meghalaya Government Lower Primary Contractual Teachers' Association (MGLPSTA) on October 6 stormed into the state's Secretariat Building at Shillong along with their family members.

The teachers have been agitating since September 7 at the Civil Hospital junction but have not received any communication from the state government.

The teachers decided to retaliate and march towards Secretariat Building even as Section 144 Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, is being imposed in the Secretariat area.

In response and to disperse the crowd, the security personnel fired tear gas, despite the presence of women and children.

Interestingly, there were no female police personnel to manage the chaos and only male personnel were deployed to manage the situation.

Chairperson State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Ïohmon Syiem has taken statements of the children and the female teachers affected by the tear gas incident earlier today. 

One of the Magistrate stated that the Chief Secretary has called the agitating teachers at 5 PM but the teachers has refused to meet the government officials and continued with their agitation.

Earlier on October 1, MGLPSTA president Birbar Riangtem had said that they would sit in front of the Secretariat from that day.

''It will be the responsibility of the government if something happens to us in the secretariat,'' he added.

Commenting on the regularization of the teachers, Riangtem said that if Assam can regularise 60,000 teachers then why it can't be done in Meghalaya.