Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Nov 20: Sand-wiched between the Central and State Governments’ policy decisions, thousands of teachers working under Sarav Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in the State are without salaries for last six months or so.
According to sources, over 45,000 teachers working under SSA in the State are without salaries for the last six months or so. Out of them over 20,000 teachers are working in Kashmir division while over 25,000 teachers are in Jammu region.
These teachers are up in arms against the Government and have warned State-wide agitation as the authorities have failed to release their salaries for over last six months for no fault of theirs, sources said, adding these teachers have also given a call for State-wide agitation from November 23.
Sources said the wrong policy decisions by Central and State Governments has been the main cause for non payment of salaries to these teachers. Under the SSA Scheme, Union Government bears 75 percent for payment of salaries of teachers while only 25 percent amount is to be paid by State Government, sources added.
As per the guidelines of Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry, the State has to utilize its 25 percent share first and only then Centre will release remaining 75 percent share, sources said.
However, the State Government has a balance of Rs 41 crore towards the salaries due to which Union HRD Ministry stopped its share with the result these teachers are without salaries for last six months, sources added.
Same is the case with the teachers working under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) in the State and they too are not paid salaries for months together as the State Government violated the directives of the HRD Ministry.
Under these guidelines, the State Government had to appoint teachers on consolidated basis for Rs 27,160 for universalisation of education in the State. But the State Government in open violation of these guidelines promoted the in service teachers as masters and later failed to provide the salaries to them as these teachers were in higher grade whose salaries were over Rs 40,000 per month, sources added.
Sources said though State Government tried to put its case before Union HRD Ministry demanding extra funds to meet out the shortage, later turned down the proposal with the plea that it can’t pay even a single pie more than its prescribed amount under the scheme with the result these teachers are also getting the salaries after months together.
This callousness of the authorities towards these teachers has generated a lot of resentment among them as their pleas before the previous as well as the present Government has failed to yield fruit.
“We are left with no alternative but to launch agitation as our pleas failed to bear fruit till date’’, said Arvind Sharma provincial president ReT Forum Jammu.
He said “we met Ministers as well as higher ups in Civil Secretariat many times but no one showed any seriousness in solving the problem which has compounded now”.
Sharing his views Farooq Ahmed Tantray chairman of the Forum said that Government is responsible for the plight of both SSA and RMSA teachers as it has violated the directives of Union HRD Ministry.
He said even Education Ministry is not implementing the February order 469 of February 24, 2014 order regarding the transfer of ReTs which is also a cause of concern for these teachers,
He said the Forum is left with no alternative but to launch agitation from November 23 for settling the issue as the same will affect the studies of the students.
Admitting that the directives of HRD Ministry have been violated in both SSA as well as RMSA schemes, some highly placed sources in Education Department said that the schemes were implemented without applying proper mind with the result the teachers working under SSA and RMSA are suffering at present.
However, when contacted, Swagat Bishwas Project Director SSA told Excelsior that the State Government is optimistic that the issue will be solved soon as it has taken it up with Union Government. He said the salaries of SSA teachers are pending as Union Government seeks certain clarifications.
Admitting that there was a liability with State Government under the scheme, he said earlier Centre has to pay 75 percent grants while State has to share 25 percent under SSA scheme but now the Centre has to pay 90 per cent grants and the State has to share 10 percent.
To implement the scheme, the Union Government wants some clarifications from Finance Ministry whether J&K falls under the category of 90: 10 share or not and once this clarification is given the Union Government will hopefully release the funds and the issue will be sorted once and for all, he added.
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