SHILLONG, Dec 23: The release of Rs 158 crore by the Centre for payment of pending salaries has come as a major relief for the agitating SSA teachers.
Education Minister, Lahkmen Rymbui said today that with the release of central funds, the government would now be able to pay the salaries of more than 16,000 SSA teachers till the month of December.
Rymbui confirmed that the funds have already been transferred to the state exchequer. “We will be able to clear four months of pending salaries,” Rymbui told reporters here.
It may be mentioned that the SSA teachers had threatened to go on a hunger strike on December 24 and 25 if their pending salaries were not released before Christmas.
The mission director was able to disburse the funds to two districts in the state, on Wednesday itself, while the disbursement for the remaining nine districts would be done subsequently.
The education minister said the teachers were expected to receive their salaries by the first week of January.
Rymbui further informed that the corpus fund of Rs 79 crore sanctioned by the state government would not be deducted since the funds received were not sufficient to clear the pending salaries of the teachers.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had earlier sanctioned Rs 79 crore as corpus fund to meet the emergency. This fund was already disbursed to the teachers three months back.
