Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, Dec 4: Up in arms against unprecedented delay in release of SSA salary and Government move on screening test of the Rehbar-e-Talim teachers, the Jammu Kashmir ReT Teachers forum has threatened to gherao the Civil Secretariat on December 15.
The warning was issued during monthly meeting of the Forum, held here today under the chairmanship of the State president Vinod Sharma and district president Lekh Raj Parihar.
While speaking on the occasion, Sharma lambasted the State Government and Education Department for allegedly harassing the ReT cadre day by issuing unjustified orders to screen ReTs having degrees from Study Centres by giving reference of court order. “Without publishing the list of fake Study Centres, how can the department go for the screening test?,” he asked.
Vinod Sharma also drew attention towards the SSA teachers of the State, who are without salary for last 4 to 6 month and the families of these teachers are living under miserable conditions as they are unable to provide proper food and clothing to their children and medicines to their old and ailing parents.
“Though Education Minister had assured two years back that he would streamline the SSA salary within 6 months, the ground reality after two years is that SSA teachers are on verge of starvation. None from Government bothers to resolve the issue of SSA salary which has always been a chronic problem but at the same time the department leaves no stone unturned to harass the ReTs on the name of so called screening test which is condemned by ReT Forum and it’s a matter of shame for those who are making to suffer the families of thousands of ReTs under SSA and due to such orders,” he said.
The Forum unanimously threatened to Gherao the Civil Secretariat on 15th of December 2016 if order on screening test is not revoked and 6 months SSA salary is not released by then.
Others who also spoke on the occasion, included Sukhdev Singh Sumbria, Ashok Seth, Pritam Goswami, Bhushan Khajuria, Sandeep Sharma, Kuldip Katoch, Surjit Singh, Anil Sharma, Sushil Singh and Mann Chand.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the ReT forum, Zone Khari in Ramban was also held at HSS Khari, under the chairmanship of district president Farooq Ahmad Runyal, for voicing concern against screening tests of ReTs and highlighting the demands like release of pending salary, enhancement of honorarium, revocation of ban on exam duty by ReTs, etc.
The meeting was attended by Farooq Ah med Tantray, Bihari Lal Sharma, Mushtaq Malik, Hussain Sohil, Javaid Ahmed Lone and others.