Salary released

SHILLONG, APR 17: Education minister Lahkmen Rymbui today informed that all SSA teachers in the state including South West Garo Hills District have received their five-month pending salaries.

He was replying to the call attention notice moved by Congress MLA from Salmanpara Winnerson D Sangma, who had sought action against the officials involved in delaying the release of salary to SSA teachers under Ampati sub-division, in the Assembly on Tuesday.

Rymbui however said that in the case of South West Garo Hills District, the delay was only because of the change of guard in the district due to the transfer of the deputy commissioner to Shillong.

He informed that on April 6, the DC, who was transferred to Shillong had to handover charge in the late afternoon to the Additional Deputy Commissioner as Deputy Commissioner in-charge and handing over of charge of the Chairman of SSA, District Unit required certain procedure for changing the signature and sending to the bank.

This procedure of required formalities could be completed only on April 9, as April 7 & 8 was Saturday and Sunday being holiday.

“The release order was sent by the office of the DMC Ampati to bank on April 9, for release of Rs 4.84 crore to Jt DMC, SSA, Ampati for further release to the respective schools. However, the ban was able to credit the amount to the account of the Jt DMC only on April 10 and subsequently on April 11, Jt DMC, Ampati released the salary to the respective school accounts,” Rymbui said.

There are a total of 262 lower primary SSA teachers and 348 upper primary SSA teachers in the district.

Meanwhile, the minister informed that the department has addressed the issue regarding the pending salary of SSA teachers although there was a delay in release of salary due to late receipt of funds from the central government. The Centre had recently released Rs 135 crore for clearing the pending salary of over 12,000 SSA teachers in the state.

By Our Reporter