Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 15: Pursuant to the release of Central share by the Union Government, the State Government today credited an amount of Rs 468.38 crore into SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) account, which will enable the School Education Department to clear salary dues in SSA of about four months, apart from release of salary from September onwards in favour of ReTs paid at the rate of Rs. 3000 per month.
A Government spokesman today stated that on the State Government’s initiative, the funding pattern under SSA has also been revised from 65:35 (Centre:State) to 90:10, which will allow the Government to demand further release of Central share of about Rs. 900 crore, as the State share requirement has been met.
“This will address the issue of delay in salaries and would also give a push to various SSA interventions meant for benefit of the children which have been languishing due to funds shortage,” he added.
The spokesman further stated that SSA, a flagship scheme, is likely to be brought back on track with timely releases of Central and State shares. With the latest release, an amount of Rs.1188.17 crore has already been made available to SSA this year, he added.
Pertinently, the State was saddled with huge salary arrears to the tune of Rs.600 crore at the beginning of the current year. During 2014-15, the State got only 47 per cent of the Central share and was never in a position to demand release of further funds from the Central Government as not only the Central releases were not credited in full to the SSA account, but also the matching state share was not released.
In fact, as against Rs.512.77 crore of Central releases, the due matching state share was Rs.276.09 crore and vis-à-vis this, only Rs.148.38 crore of State share was credited in the SSA account. Due to severe cash crunch, there was a gap of up to four months between the date of release and date of crediting in the SSA account, the spokesman added.
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