Two teachers fell ill on Monday as additional teachers of primary schools continued their hunger strike for the fourth consecutive day at Tyag Khetra in Lakhimpur town of Assam.
The teachers are staging the hunger strike to press the demand for regularising their service. A teacher said: "Two of the teachers fell ill while observing the hunger strike today. We took them to North Lakhimpur civil hospital. We are surprised at Assam government's apathetic attitude towards our genuine demands".
The primary school teachers from Lakhimpur district in Assam who have not received their salaries for the past 12 years had decided to embark on an indefinite hunger strike from August 10 in protest against the state government's indifferent attitude to their genuine demands.
Earlier on July 26 in Sivasagar district, additional teachers of primary schools attempted 'Mass Suicide' over unpaid salary. Their attempts were foiled by the police and local administration officials.
Assam government assured the agitating teachers to convene a meeting with Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Education Minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya within one week. But the assurance was not materialised.
"Since government has not initiated any talks with us for solution of our demands, we have started hunger strike", said an agitating teacher.
It may be mentioned that in 2006, as many as 9,236 primary school teachers appointed between 1989 and 2001 were declared 'illegal' by the Assam government.
