COTA intensifies fast unto death stir
FeCTAM ceasework from Feb 28,Students seek end of impasse
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, February 22 2011: COTA today intensified its fast unto death stir with 200 teachers to go on fast at one time.

Another 200 teachers are ready to follow suit.

The 200 teachers including women joined the 15 teachers who were on fast in front of the Johnstone Higher Secondary School since yesterday.

About 200 teachers who were picked up earlier by the police on the charge of attempt to commit suicide are still in jail.

The 200 teachers joining the stir were from schools in Imphal East and Chandel district and they joined the fasting as part of intensification of the strike of the teachers demanding adoption of the revised pay bands recommended by the sixth pay commission.

Teachers under COTA have been on a fast-unto-death since January 19 last pressing the state government to fulfill their demands.

"By not taking classes with the exams knocking at the door, we considered our act like committing a sin to the students," said the teachers joining the stir explaining that they were compelled to do so when government remained silent regarding their demands.

The responsibility of any consequences affecting the careers of the students should be borne by the government, they said.

Another batch of 200 teachers who have arrived to continue the fast unto death stir under COTA

Another 200 teachers from Imphal west ZEO-I and ZEO (Wangoi)-II are getting ready to join the stir from February 24, they said.

Meanwhile, the sit-in-protest staged by the government college teachers in their respective college premises demanding adoption of UGC pay structure has also entered the second day.

Teachers launched the stir under the Federation of College Teachers' Association, Manipur and they have also threatened to intensify their stir with a cease-work strike from February 28, setting February 27 deadline to address their demands.

Concerned over the suspension of the class due to college teachers' strike, the Coordinating Committee of College Students Union, a body of students of colleges, has, in the meantime, appealed to the teachers to review their decision considering the careers of the students.

H Puranchandra, the convener of the committee, speaking to reporters, said that since the college teachers started their stir with mass casual leaves on February 18 and 19 followed by sit-in protests in their respective colleges from next day, classes have remained cancelled.

The stir will have a great impact to the academic careers of the students if the teachers continue ceasework strike as announced to start from February 28, he observed.

DESAM has also appealed to both government and striking FECTAM to come to the negotiating table considering the academic career of the students, a statement signed by its publicity secretary LC Bobisana said.