SHILLONG, March 6 ? Banks remained closed and attendance in government offices was affected in East, West and Ri-Bhoi districts of Meghalaya on the first day of the two-day picketing by Khasi Students Union to press their demands, official sources said. Police and CRPF have been posted in from of all the offices and no untoward incident was reported till noon from any where, the sources said. Though no picketers were sighted, all banks, post offices and treasury office, besides the telecom department remained closed. The attendance at the secretariat, Deputy Commissioner?s office and Meghalaya public service commission office here was negligible, while in some other government office it was almost nil, the sources said. KSU?s demand included among others termination of the services of the chairman and secretary of Meghalaya Board of Secondary Education in view of the recent leak of question papers, judicial probe into the killing of three youths by security personnel at Umkaliar on February 19 and resumption of dialogue with the Union on its long-pending charter of demands.
In a official communication sent by Education Officer, V D Gaur in the department of Elementary Education and Literacy to P Dutta, Commissioner & Secretary Education, he has said that terms and conditions of appointment of teachers under OBB in middle school are not in accordance with the guidelines of the scheme. According to the appointment orders of new teachers so appointed under the scheme, their tenure is slated to expire on March 31. Under the scheme, the officer has pointed out, new posts are created against the sanctioned posts. Salaries are covered for all the new created posts for salary payment for the plan period in which appointments are made. Thereafter, the liability of salary component is transferred to State.
The HRD Ministry has now asked Assam Government to confirm whether these posts will be continued after termination of Ninth Plan and the State Government would take over the liability of these teachers according to the guidelines of the scheme. According to sources, Assam Government has been reluctant to claim the balance of the funds due from the Centre apprehensive of the salary burden that will fall on it. Some 10,000 teachers are estimated to have been appointed under the OBB during the duration of the Ninth Plan period.