The All Nagaland Adhoc Teachers’ Group (ANATG), 2015 batch, on Wednesday launched an indefinite hunger strike outside the Capital Convention Centre in Kohima, demanding immediate service regularization of 1,166 of them. The ongoing agitation by ANATG over delay in service regularization entered its eighth day on Thursday. They had started the protest in a low-key manner on February 4 with the teachers converging daily at Naga Solidarity Park. The ANATG said that 15 male volunteers are participating in the hunger strike who would remain on fast for as long as they can and that, unlike in 2018 and 2022, there would be no replacements this time. Amid the agitation, the Nagaland government outlined the status of the long-pending regularization process of the ANATG-2015, comprising teachers appointed on contract/ad-hoc basis under the School Education Department between the late 1990s and 2012.
An official statement said a suitability test was conducted in May 2017 in line with P&AR Office Memorandums of 2008 and 2016, which provided for regularization after three years of continuous service, subject to clearance of the test and cabinet approval. All 1,166 teachers who cleared the test were recommended for regularization and a cabinet memorandum was submitted on October 26, 2017.
However, the process was stalled following orders of the Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench, in July 2017 and August 2018, which restrained the state government from regularising contract/ad-hoc employees. In August 2018, the cabinet decided to defer regularisation until the court matter was resolved, though the fixed pay of the ad-hoc teachers was doubled.
In 2022, the government constituted a High-Powered Committee, which submitted its report next year. In February 2024, the cabinet adopted a policy for regularization of contract/ad-hoc employees, followed by a resolution of the Assembly. A one-time regularization policy was notified on March 16, 2024, applicable to employees appointed against sanctioned posts prior to June 6, 2016, and a Screening Committee was constituted.
The School Education Department has since forwarded details of 2,487 ad-hoc/contract employees to the Screening Committee, with verification and scrutiny of documents currently underway, the statement said.
Despite several rounds of meetings in early February between ANATG representatives, departmental officials, the Screening Committee and senior government functionaries, including the Chief Secretary, the teachers have gone ahead with the hunger strike, alleging lack of concrete timelines and decisions.
