The government school teachers in Bengaluru have not received their salaries since the month of September despite several requests, reports Deccan Herald. The number of the teachers whose salaries have been delayed is easily over 40,000.
Office bearers of the Karnataka Primary School Teachers’ Association said, “Salaries of teachers for all 204 educational blocks have not been released.”
Teachers, who are burdened with home loans and other expenses are approaching authorities but to no avail.
Arun Shahapur, member of the Legislative Council said, “Many teachers approached me with the issue. When we checked with the department, officials said that the delay is due to the switching process from Khajane 1 to Khajane 2 system for disbursal of salary funds. Whatever is the technical issue, the department must release salaries for teachers on time.”
Shahapur added that the problem of salaries is common for teachers hired under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan schemes, but for the last few months, even the teachers hired directly by the department seem to be suffering. The government disburses salaries to regular teachers through the respective zilla and taluk panchayats, the teachers from the SSA get their dues from the SSA state project office.
Officials from the department of public instruction have said that the delay is due to the pending approval for release of salary funds. “The estimation of salaries sent from districts needs to get a vote on account three months before. Due to several technical issues, including wrong estimation sent from districts the process was delayed,”
As per the SSA scheme, the Human Resources Department provides Rs. 15,000 to per teacher, with the state having to pay the rest to bring it on par with other teachers. The funding changes every year depending on the progress of the scheme and new proposals.
Speaking to The Times of India, an office bearer said, “The Centre releases its share in three installment and it has been irregular. The state refuses to disburse the salary until it gets the Centre’s share. But, the teachers are the ones suffering.”
S R Umashankar, Prinicipal Secretary of the Primary and Secondary Education department said that the deputy directors would gather on Saturday to discuss the issue.
This isn’t the first time that teachers have been short-changed in the fight between the Centre and the State.
Earlier this month, the Meghalaya Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Association (MSSAA) threatened to agitate if the state government failed to release funds for their pending salaries for three months before November 18. In a letter to the Principal Secretary of the Education Department, the MSSAA President Aristotle Rymbai said that 5814 lower primary teachers and 6727 upper primary teachers working under the Samagra Shiksha were facing hardships because of the delayed in salary.
In Chandigarh, in the same month, 200 computer teachers, 87 counsellors and other contractual employees in 114 government schools protested saying they are still awaiting the salary for the month of October.
In July, the employees of Patna University too were dealt the same card. It is still unsure if they will get their salaries for the next six months. Sources say that the procedure of payment of salaries through treasury may take a long time because a mandatory bar-code of only 270 of the 1000 employees has been created in the past three months.
The former member of Bihar’s Public Service Commission and the former head of the English Department PU, Shiv Jatan Thakur slammed the government’s decision to pay through treasury and not the university fund as established under the Section 45 of the Patna University Act, 1975.
In October, teachers of the Jai Narayan Vyas University in Jodhpur demonstrated outside the Vice Chancellor’s office because of the failure of the university to disburse salaries owing to the delay in the issuance of the block grant by the state government.
Earlier this year, the teacher associations in Bihar like the Bihar Rajyapatrit Shikshak Mahasangh, Bihar Rajya Prarambhik Shikshak Sangh and Parivartankari Prarambhik Shikshak Sangh, threated to vote NOTA in the then parliamentary elections over the delay in payment of salaries of over three lakh teachers.
Teachers in West Bengal threatened to cease work over the government’s decision to hike salaries according to the seventh central pay commission starting 2020 instead of 2019. Their fight for the hike has been going on since 2016, but has always fallen on deaf ears.
It is pathetic to see the apathy of the state and central government towards the teachers who are engaged in such a noble profession and depriving them of their right to live with dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution.
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