Disbursement of pending arrears
By Our Reporter
Shillong: The school teachers under the banner of Khasi Jaintia Deficit School Teachers Association (KJDSTA) on Saturday, resolved to issue a 45-day ultimatum to the state government to release the pending 30 percent arrears recommended under the Meghalaya fourth pay commission.
The deadline set for the state government by the association will start from Sunday till August 15 with a demand from the government to release the pending dues to around 2,367 members of the KJDSTA.
The decision was unanimously taken by the members of this association at a general meeting held at Don Bosco Hall at Laitumkhrah here on Saturday.
According to KJDSTA president ED Nongsiang, the government was supposed to release their dues after the budget session as assured by the education minister Prof RC Laloo during their last meeting.
During the meeting held in the month of February this year, Prof Laloo assured on the disbursement of the pending arrears stating that if the arrears were not released to the teachers before the budget session (held in March), then the government would release the remaining 30 percent arrears after the budget session.
The association has also stated that the state government is yet to implement its assurance that salary to teachers should be disbursed on a monthly basis despite an order dated July 25, 2011 which has been circulated by the government.
“The assurance is yet to be fulfilled as we have not received any amount of the money from the government so far,” Nongsiang said.
“It seems the government is not following its own orders. Time and again they were notified regarding the disbursement of the pending dues but they failed to deliver on their part,” he stated, adding that teachers were getting salary mostly after a gap of three months at times.
Criticizing the director of school education JD Sangma for mentioning that the deficit system falls under private schools and no service rules can be formulated for such schools, Nongsiang questioned “We (deficit school teachers) get our salary from the government. Even our confirmation and regularization letters are given by the government only. How can the government wash its hands off?”
The education department has also contemplated to deposit the salary of teachers in their respective bank accounts and had even directed the managing committees of the schools to provide the account numbers of the teachers.
Further, deliberating on the certain reforms relating to examination adopted by Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE), the KJDSTA has decided to constitute a committee to study the pros and cons of the examination reforms in depth.