DIMAPUR, April 18 – The NSCN-IM is accused of abducting two government teachers in Wokha district on April 12 for not paying “24 per cent net salary deduction” to the underground group.
The two teachers, unidentified at the time of filing this report, are both said to be teachers in the government primary schools at Hanku and Niropen villages. Following the incident, an angry All Nagaland School Teachers’ Association (ANSTA) has directed all teachers across the State not to attend work on April 24 as a “mark of resentment” against the alleged kidnappings.
The school teachers’ body expressed strong anger over the incident and asked all teachers to stay away from work on the stated day in protest. This is for citizens’ note that the so-stated “deduction” is a cut the undergrounds routinely take from salaried government employees in Nagaland.
“The All Nagaland School Teachers Association has vehemently condemned the abduction of the two teachers on April 12 by NSCN (IM) Wokha region at gun-point for not paying yearly tax in the stipulated time frame,” the Association stated in a press release.
The Association also stated that the issue of exempting teachers from tax collection by ‘national workers’ is under negotiation, which is being collectively carried out by NSF, ENSF and ANSTA with various groups. “Since the process of negotiation is still underway, the teaching community is not in a position to pay the tax in the appointed time as being demanded by them,” the teachers said.
According to the Association, repeated appeals for “exemption” have been made, the reason being that teachers are being “tortured both physically and mentally in the form of assault, harassment, threatening, intimidation, arrest and abduction at gunpoint”.
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