With the Government saying a severe financial crunch prevents them from meeting the teachers' demands for regular salaries, evaluation work has been held up.

Evaluation of answer sheets ought to have begun on April 19, but the teachers have refused to work. According to the striking teachers, the Government has gone back on promises made to them in March, when they were made to agree to carry out examination duties.

The Board of Secondary Education, Assam is trying make the striking teachers see reason, although solving the crisis comes within the State Government's ambit.

The government owes arrears to the tune of about Rs 20 crore to nearly 8,500 teachers, divided into 41 clusters in as many centres throughout the State. The results, according to the board's earlier announcement, should have been out by the last week ofJune, ``but now that looks a distant possibility'' said a senior board official here today.

The Mahanta Government says it has been suffering for the mistakes of former CM Hiteswar Saikia, who had appointed a large number of school teachers allegedly in contravention of rules. ``We have inherited a funny situation, and we cannot even throw out the teachers. One cannot blame them,'' Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta had earlier said.

State Education Minister Thaneswar Boro had assured teachers in the second week of March, when they had refused to cooperate with the holding of examinations, that the Government would regularise the payment of salaries after the State Budget session.

But that has simply not come through, compelling the teachers to go in for a second round of non-cooperation while the evaluation process was about to begin.

The Government has drawn criticism from various quarters for failing to ensure the smooth completion of high school examinations. The All-Assam Students' Union hasblamed the government for not taking concrete steps to solve the problem once and for all.

AASU president Prabin Boro said the Government lacked sincerity in solving the impasse, thus pushing the future of the 1.72 lakh students into uncertainty.

Several senior citizens of the State too have criticised the Government and urged it to take immediate steps to bring the striking teachers back to work.

The announcement of results of the HSLC examination in Assam has always lagged behind other states, preventing the State's student community from competing with others and securing admission to colleges outside the region.