SHILLONG: Governor Tathagata Roy has assured he will ask both the Centre and the state government to speed up releasing the pending salary of teachers working in schools in the state funded by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). This was informed by a delegation of the All Meghalaya SSA School Teachers' Association (Amssasta), which met the governor at the Raj Bhavan requesting for his intervention into the matter on Wednesday.Altogether 12,451 SSA teachers are yet to be paid for the past five months. Earlier this month, more than two hundred aggrieved teachers had boycotted Teacher's Day celebration and staged a sit-in-demonstration in the capital to express their resentment over the delay in releasing their salaries.After the meeting, Amssasta president Lasforious Marngar said on apprising the governor about the plight of the teachers, he expressed shock to know that the teachers are without salary for many months. "He has assured us that he will immediately take up the matter with both the Centre and the state government with a direction to release the salaries as soon as possible," Marngar said.He said the association has also sought information from the Union ministry of human resources development (MHRD) through the Right to Information (RTI) Act to find out the cause behind the delay. Marngar also recalled that chief minister Conrad K Sangma, during a meeting held recently with a delegation of the association, had assured that the state government will take measures to ensure that the teachers do not suffer.State education minister Lahkmen Rymbui had recently expressed concern over the problems faced by the state government due to the present financial crisis as it would require an additional amount of Rs 34.10 crore to pay the salaries. "Though the Centre is yet to release the fund, the problem for us is to meet this additional expenditure," he had stated.

Stay updated with all the Latest Shillong headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.