Data verification has salaries of Pune’s Sinhgad teachers on hold again

The amount was to contribute to 15 months of pending salaries of teachers, which STES had denied them citing the lack of reimbursements as a major reason.

Teachers protesting against the Sinhgad Technical Education Society (STES) over pending salaries faced another draw back, as the social welfare department has asked for an extension to verify data.

Bombay high court bench passed a directive on March 21, to the social welfare department to submit  ₹171 crore as pending reimbursements, to be used to pay salaries to teachers. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

This was after the Bombay high court bench, led by judges RV More and Justice Shah, passed a directive on March 21, to the social welfare department to submit ₹171 crore as pending reimbursements, to be used to pay salaries to teachers.

This amount was to contribute to 15 months of pending salaries of teachers, which STES had denied them citing the lack of reimbursements as a major reason.

However, despite the welfare body submitting the amount, it is yet to be encashed and dispersed to teachers. According to the social welfare department, the delay is because of a pending verification of data of students provided by 26 colleges under STES.

“At the court on Monday, the representatives of the SWD said that there could be a possibility of bogus students in the data, and so they will be able to encash the amount only after full verification. They had received only 13,000 out of 15,000 applications,” said Sachin Shinde, teachers association representative.