12,000 SSA teachers not given salary for 4 months
Tribune News Service
Faridkot, January 11
Around 12,000 government school teachers in the state have not got their salaries for the past four months as the state government has failed to contribute its share of 35 per cent to the salaries of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers.
Salary under the SSA scheme is shared between the Central government (65 per cent) and the state government (35 per cent).
Though the Centre released its share of Rs 185 crore about two months back, cash-strapped Punjab could not contribute its share. So, over 12,000 teachers in government primary and elementary schools in the state have been working without salary for the past four months, said Harjit Singh Zeeda, the state adviser of SSA-RMSA Teachers Union.
“We are running from pillar to post for the past four months to get our salaries released, but to no avail,” said Didar Singh Mudki, the state president of SSA-RMSA Teachers Union.
Harjit Kaur, incharge of the SSA component in Department of School Education, Punjab, said the teachers would get their salaries this week as the state government has just contributed its share.
As the state government has been on the edge of a financial meltdown for long, there have been many occasions when teachers did not get their salaries on time, but this is the first time that there has been a four-month delay in disbursing salaries, said Prem Chawla, senior vice -president, Government School Teachers Union.
It is not only the inordinate delay in salary but the woman teachers working under SSA or RMSA (Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan) scheme in government schools also face discrimination. The SSA or RMSA woman teachers get only 12-week-long maternity leave while government school teachers are entitled to maternity leave of six months.
After an SSA teacher, Reena Singla, approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court on May 16, 2013, the high court allowed maternity leave of 180 days to all SSA-RMSA woman teachers as per the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.
But the high court orders notwithstanding, the SSA and RMSA teachers were not being allowed six-month maternity leave, alleged Harjit Singh Zeeda.
