ReT Forum says released funds insufficient for salaries

Srinagar: The J&K Rehbar-e-Taleem Teachers’ Forum said that the 250 crore rupees released by the government for the teachers’ salaries was “insufficient”, and not as per the 7th pay commission.

The state project directorate of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan on Thursday released Rs 10666.427 lakh for the salaries of the teachers recruited under the erstwhile Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme- for the month of February.

For the salaries of the teachers for June, the directorate released Rs 14729.780 lakh.
The directorate also released Rs 4, 9240,000 for the salaries of subject-specific teachers hired under the erstwhile Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA).

The amount released for the salaries of subject specific teachers would be paid for the months March-May 2018, added the order.

While the order said that the SSA salaries had been released “out of central share”, SPD, Samagra JK, Tufail Matoo told Kashmir Reader that the released amount also included state share.

The ratio of the Government of India share and the state share of the released amount, Matoo said, was “90:10”.

President of the Rehbar e Taleem teachers forum, Farooq Ahmad Tantray, told Kashmir Reader that the salaries released by the state project directorate of Samagra for the month of February were “insufficient”.

Tantray said that the government had deprived them of the benefits of 7th pay commission.

“The salaries released by them for February are insufficient even as per the 6th pay commission,” he claimed.

He said that the insufficient salary was “unacceptable” to the teachers.

The ReTs, he said, would hold a 15-hour sit-in at the Samagra project directorate on Monday.

After the merger of the SSA and RMSA schemes into Samagra from this year, there has been a drastic reduction in the salary component of the teachers working under the erstwhile twin schemes.

While around Rs 1,600 crore were approved by the MHRD last year “only for the salary of teachers working under SSA”, an official said that the amount approved by the government of India this year was meant to be spent on the salary of teachers working “both under SSA and RMSA”.

As their salary is delayed for months altogether, over 41, 000 ReTs recruited under the SSA have been, of late, demanding that their salary be delinked from the MHRD.
Being the state’s own employees, the ReTs demand that the state government should pay them under its own budget.