Complaining of problems in salary disbursement for the past year, teachers under Samagra Shiksha (SS) Chandigarh on Thursday announced to go on strike if the process is not streamlined and their full salaries are not cleared soon.
Around 1,200 junior basic training (JBT) and trained graduate teacher (TGT) teachers are working under SS Chandigarh. The scheme was introduced by the central government in 2018 to treat school education holistically without segmentation from pre-nursery to Class 12.
During a meeting on Thursday, after an order to release only 70% of their salaries for March, the SS Teachers’ Welfare Association decided to hold a protest.
Association president Arvind Rana said there had been problems in salaries throughout the last year. “As the budget for the scheme is released thrice in a year, it leads to bottlenecks in salary disbursement. Twice we were paid three months’ salaries in one go and on some occasions, we were paid only 30-40% of the salary. This hurts the teachers’ self-respect,” he said.
He said the problem lied with the scheme’s accounts branch and an overhaul was needed.
{{/usCountry}}He said the problem lied with the scheme’s accounts branch and an overhaul was needed.
{{/usCountry}}Body’s general secretary Ajay Sharma added that 100% salary must be released soon or they will hold a protest and also meet the Punjab governor.
When contacted, state project director for the scheme, Harsuhinderpal Singh Brar said he was aware of the problem and it will be resolved within a week.