Govt releases pending salary of SSA teachers for 2 months

Jammu/April,8:  The state government has released pending salary of Regularized ReTs and Head Teachers under SSA for the months of November and December 2016 setting the process in motion for clearing all their pending dues as per commitment.
The salary of Regularised-ReTs and Head Teachers under SSA, the funds for which are shared by centre and state government at 90:10 pattern respectively, was pending since October 2016. While the state government has already released salaries of ReTs and ReTs-to-be-regularized for the full year, it has been facing difficulty in paying the salary of the two categories of teachers due to non-disbursement of adequate central share of yearly allocations by Union Human Resource Development Ministry.
Against the approved Central allocation of Rs 1856 crore for 2016-17, the HRD Ministry has provided Rs 1120 crore to J&K leaving a balance of Rs 736 crore.
However, meeting his commitment to manage and clear the dues by this month end,   the Education Minister, Syed Altaf Bukhari pursued the case with state finance ministry, which has now released its (state’s) full share for 2017-18 to dispense the teachers’ salary.
Meanwhile, Education Minister informed that the funds to pay two month salary have been released and the same would be disbursed in few days. He reiterated that remaining dues would also be released in due course of time.
“As per commitment we have set in the process of clearing the dues of SSA teachers by managing funds on our own, till HRD releases balance amount. Hopefully remaining dues will also be paid in near future” the Education Minister said. He said the problem faced by the teachers working under SSA due to non-payment of salaries is a serious concern and government would use all means to solve this issue.