Srinagar: The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers on Thursday staged a massive demonstration at Press Enclave in Srinagar – the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir – against the delay in the release of their pending salaries.
The protesting teachers said the government has not released their salaries for the past five months, causing immense hardships to the teaching community.
“The finance minister in the last budget session in Jammu claimed that the SSA salary will be delinked and would be released on monthly basis from April. Ironically, the claims have fallen flat as we have not received our wages from past five months,” the protesting SSA teachers said.
They SSA teachers representing JK Rehbar-e-Taleem Teachers Forum (ReTTF) said they have decided to continue the lock down of all schools till Monday as a mark of protest against the government’s failure to release their salaries.
“If the government is not in position to streamline the SSA salary issue, it should convert all SSA posts into state non plan posts so that the salaries will be released on time,” the teachers said. The ReTTF threatened to stage state wide protest if the release of SSA salary is not streamlined till Eid-ul-fitr.
“We will go for state wide lock down of schools and government will be responsible for the consequences. Around 70 percent schools in rural areas are dependent on ReT teachers,” the teachers said.
