SHILLONG, July 5: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan teachers on Tuesday met Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui with the demands for release of their salaries which have not been paid for five months, pay hike and additional budgetary provision for SSA in the budget.
Acknowledging that the SSA teachers in the state were facing hardship as their salary was pending for five months, Rymbui said, “I have explained to them the nitty-gritty of what we are doing and what we will do and the sequence of event that have occurred in the last two-three months.”
Rymbui said the SSA teachers had wanted to know if the capping fund which is lying with the government could be released. “I told them that next week we will sit and discuss the matter so as to ease their hardship as much as possible,” he said.
Talking about the budget provisions, he said, “The Meghalaya government had made budgetary allocation in anticipation of the grant released by the Centre. The project director of SSA Meghalaya is constant touch with the Ministry of Education in Delhi to get the grant released as early as possible.”
Soon after meeting the minister, Meghalaya Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan School Association president Aristotle Rymbai said, “We discussed three agenda – pending salary, enhancement of salary and greater provisions in the budget for the SSA.”
On the delay in release of salary, Rymbai said the minister told them that the delay was because the department had received insufficient funds from the state and central governments.
The MSSASA president also said the minister will hold a meeting with the chief minister and officials of the Education department to discuss the demands of the SSA teachers.
It may be recalled that the MSSASA had announced that they would hit the streets if their demands were not fulfilled by July 15.
Meanwhile, Rymbui said the Cabinet decision to provide enhanced grant-in-aid to ad hoc teachers was balanced taking into consideration the state’s financial health.
Reminding that he had assured in the Assembly that enhancement will be there, he said he had never talked about the quantum of hike as it had to be decided by the Cabinet and not by the Education department.
