SHILLONG: Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui on Thursday informed the Assembly that a sanction of Rs 94, 63, 37, 100 was received on March 5 and the state government will consider release of salaries to teachers.
Replying to a call attention motion moved by Congress MLA Mayralborn Syiem, who urged the department to release the pending salaries of the teachers, Rymbui said, “The procedure for early release of salary is already under process and the final release to the district level will be disbursed at the earliest.”
He added that release of funds from the Centre is also under process.
He said the Plan Approved Board (PAB) has through the years committed on the annual work plan and Budget proposed by the state government. However, he said the release of fund against the PAB has never been consistent and this has led to the disparity in the payment of salary to teachers.
In the year 2016-17, the total amount approved by PAB including salary for SSA was Rs 45124.44 lakh and the total amount released by central was Rs 20067.01 lakh. In 2017-18, the total amount approved was Rs 46814.13 lakh while the amount released was Rs 33579.50 lakh; in 2018-19, the total amount approved is Rs 40796.07 lakh whereas the amount released is Rs 13010.31 lakh.
Rymbui further informed, “The percentage of fund release by the Government of India in the last three years was 44 per cent in 2016-17, 71 per cent in 2017-18 and 31 per cent as on March 7, 2019 for the year 2018-19 which is minimal and delayed release in many respect.”
He added that the fluctuation in the fund release has greatly affected the smooth functioning of the scheme, especially timely release of salary of teachers, inclusive education coordinators, special educators, vocational trainers and other non-teaching staff under Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.
Corpus fund
Rymbui said the Education department had adopted a mechanism with the support of the state government to safeguard the welfare of teachers in particular and the quality outcome of education in the state as a whole through the introduction of a corpus fund during the year 2017-18.
He added that the department received an amount of Rs 7, 807.09 lakh and salary for the months of September and October, 2018 was released to SSA & RMSA’s academic staff amounting to Rs 5590.27 lakh.
He said, “The corpus fund is generated and kept for the existence and sustenance of the society and needs to be replenished to the Finance department after we receive the central funding.”
