By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, March 17: The Opposition on Thursday suggested a corpus fund be put under the disposal of the Education department for the timely release of the salaries of the teachers and the scholarships of the students.
Participating in the cut motion moved by All India Trinamool Congress’s Mawsynram legislator, HM Shangpliang on the final day of the Assembly budget session, Opposition leader Mukul M Sangma said a corpus fund can be created for timely release of the salaries and scholarships.
“There was a suggestion when we were in the government. But it could not be done due to various factors,” he said.
He said the corpus fund can be kept aside for usage by the Education department for addressing the issue of delay in the payment of salaries to the teachers.
“It is really unfortunate to see SSA teachers leave duties to come to the state capital to get the issues pertaining to the non-regular payment of their salaries addressed,” Sangma said.
“This problem was not there until 2014. The Centre was very prompt in releasing the funds. We must try to impress upon the Centre to allocate funds to the Education Department within the first quarter of the financial year,” he said.
He pointed out that a major chunk of the schools in the state is under the SSA programmes. “We see a usual delay of six to seven months in the payment of salaries of the SSA teachers.
Therefore, it is important to have a dedicated fund placed at the disposal of the Education department. At least, this money can be spent in advance in anticipation of the money to be released by the Centre,” Sangma said.
According to him, the Centre will keep delaying the release of funds despite assurances to the contrary.
“Finally, the problem has to be faced by the state. We need to avoid a situation where the teachers face such an agonising experience. It affects our children and it has such negative ramifications on the overall socio-economic landscape,” Sangma said.
He further suggested a dedicated fund to address the issue of delay in the release of students’ scholarships. “The state government had to delay the release of the scholarship since it is waiting for funds from the Centre,” he added.
In his reply, Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui said the state government is not facing any problem in releasing the salaries of various categories of teachers except for the SSA teachers.
“We have no problem releasing the salaries as long as they submit their utilisation certificates on time,” he said.
He admitted that the government has been facing problems in paying the SSA teachers.
“We had tried to create a corpus fund. In 2020, we had paid the salaries from this corpus fund pending the release of funds from the Centre. But the state government could never replenish this fund since the Centre time and again has delayed the release of the instalments,” Rymbui said.
He, however, said the government will try to release the pending salaries of the SSA teachers as much as possible within this financial year.
Rymbui also said the state government will examine the proposal to create a corpus fund to ensure that the students get the benefit of the scholarship in time.
Action demanded against proxy teaching in rural schools
The Opposition on Thursday raised the issue of proxy teachers in most of the schools in the rural areas.
Participating in the cut motion moved by Shangpliang, Sangma said many regular teachers are appointing someone on their own to teach in their place, which is an unhealthy trend.
“It is a reality and it has been brought to the notice of the House on several occasions,” he said.
Shangpliang had earlier said many teachers are outsourcing their jobs to others to teach in the rural schools on their behalf.
“This is illegal and needs to be checked. The inspector of schools and deputy inspector of schools should conduct surprise inspections to find out about these proxy teachers,” he said.
Rymbui said the matter has been raised time and again but no one has come forward with a complaint. “The department will not be able to take any action if there is no official complaint,” he said.