SHILLONG: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan teachers in the state on Saturday submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on saturday, requesting release of funds for payment of eight months’ pending arrears.
The association said the irregular transfer of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan budget to Meghalaya by the Human Resources Development Ministry has become a problem in the past two years.
Under the provision of Section 7 Clause 5 of RTE Act 2009, the state government after taking into consideration the amount of central share and mandatory matching of state share shall provide the balance funds to the state implementing society, SEMAM-SSA from its own resources to ensure allocation of adequate funds for school education sector, including SSA.
But unfortunately government of Meghalaya has denied taking responsibility as per provisions of the RTE Act, the association stated in the memorandum.
The Meghalaya SSA School Association stated that a letter was sent by Anil Swarup, the secretary, ministry of HRD, to the chief secretary of Meghalaya Kuljit Singh Kropha on February 13 informing him that it has recommended the state could increase its budget in order to meet the balance estimate for the implementation of the SSA-RTE Act by ensuring adequate allocation for the school education sector in the State Budget for 2017-18 under the 14th Finance Commission.
This would also support the effective implementation of the centrally sponsored schemes including SSA.
But till date there was no response from the government which has affected the livelihood of the SSA teachers in various aspects, it said.
This was stated in a press release issued here.
