In a breather to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers, who are without salaries from almost last six months, the state government Wednesday announced that all the pending salaries including arrears would be released in the month of December.The government also said that with the changing pattern of SSA Scheme from the Central government, the teachers will be now able to receive salaries at the end of every month.Talking to Kashmir News Service (KNS), the Spokesman of PDP-BJP government and Education Minister Nayeem Ahktar said, “I am glad to announce that the SSA teachers who have suffered a lot due to the nonpayment of their salaries will now receive all their pending dues in the month of the December.
“The government of India has changed the funding pattern of the SSA Scheme. First it was disbursed from Central share of (65%) and the state share of (35%) but now it has changed to (90%) central, and the (10%) state,” he said.Nayeem Ahktar further said that though the funding issue was stuck between the Union Finance Minister and MHRD Minister, but now it has been sorted out and the funds from the central government will be released anytime in the month of the December,” the minister claimed.He said that it is not only that the government will pay pending arrears to the teachers but we will ensure that no arrears to accumulate in the future. “I understand the problems of these teachers. But unfortunately this mess was left by the previous regime. Now I assure that there would be no hiccups in the future as an appropriate system is being put in place to ensure regular flow of funds from the Centre and its proper utilization as per norms, ‘which was not a case in the past’, he said.
He added that when PDP came into the government almost all the SSA teachers were without salaries for the last one and a half year. “The previous government had diverted SSA funds elsewhere and in creating of fake schools. Keeping in view of pain of these teachers we somehow managed the state share from the state resources and then the government of India gave us the matching share of the last year,” the minister said and added that accordingly the salaries were released.Nayeem Ahktar further told KNS that that for the current year including the previous year’s liabilities, the state government paid 830 crore. “We had given the state share of previous year of, 580 crore and the current year’s share of 250 crore. This money has already gone to the Ujala Society,” Nayeem said.However he said that the previous governments mess can be estimated by the fact that the government of India has again dug out 41 crore of the previous liabilities.He however said that during his meeting with the Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani he had cleared all the things regarding the issues of SSA teachers.He said that the government is now expecting them (teachers) to give in their best to transform the education sector in the State so that our schools turn out to be institutions of excellence in academics. (KNS)