Employees' strike cripples DIET
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 15 2019: District Institution for Education and Training (DIET) lecturers and non-teaching staff in the State have been undertaking a pen-down strike against State Government's failure to revise their pay scale since November 12 .

With the pen-down strike underway, DIET lecturers have been refraining from evaluating answer sheets of Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) examinations, which was supposed to begin from November 13 .

Employees' strike cripples DIET

As a result, individuals who pursue scholarship for Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) programme, and who must obtain certificates of Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) as well as those who want to become elementary school teachers would be adversely affected by the agitation.

The DIET lecturers have been demanding revision of pay scale equivalent to those of their counterparts in India.

According to the protesting DIET lecturers, their salaries are much lower as compared to their counterparts in other States, including Nagaland and Mizoram.

Claiming that they got regularised on December 24, 2011 after working on contractual basis for many years, the DIET lecturers decried that the State Government has never revised the pay scale and they are deprived of even proper pay structure recommended by the 6th Central Pay Commission till date.

The pay scale of DIET employees in other parts of India have already been increased.

However, the State Government is yet to fulfil the long pending demands of the DIET lecturers and non-teaching staff although the Government gave assurances multiple times in the past.

There is a huge gap between the salaries of DIET lecturers and non-teaching staff in the State and those of other States.

This is a serious violation of the rights of the DIET employees in the State, the protesters decried.

Demanding that the State Government take serious note of their genuine demands, the protesting employees warned that they will launch intensified mode of agitation soon if the Government continues to sideline their demands.

Mention may be made that the time for applying online scholarship for D.El.Ed programme is approaching fast while the schedule for TET has been already fixed.