Meghalaya government has decided to start a corpus fund of over Rs 78 crore to maintain uninterrupted flow of money.
This decision comes in the wake of the Centre’s delay in releasing the fund for salary of SSA teachers.
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Replying to a cut motion jointly moved by Congress members Mayralborn Syiem and Kimfa Marbaniang, Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui said the state government took this bold step due to the chronic financial debacle and prolonged delay in the release of fund, especially for the payment of teachers of both Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) schools.
He said the state government could not release the salary of teachers from April this year and every year, the same financial constraints are being repeated leading to recurring liabilities towards teachers’ salary.
Earlier, replying to a call attention motion moved by P T Sawkmie of the Congress on the problems being faced by SSA teachers, Rymbui said the process was on to disburse Rs 132.28 crore sanctioned by the Centre on September 14.
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Rymbui said after the delay in releasing the fund, he and the Chief Minister had written to the Centre.
Sawkmie highlighted the plight of an SSA teacher who did not have money to treat his ailing son, reports The Shillong Times.
Rymbui said every year, the Project Approval Board (PAB) of the HRD Ministry approves the budget in February but for 2018-19, the PAB approved the budget only on May 25 resulting in the delay. He also informed that after the Union Budget 2018-19 restructured school education scheme into integrated scheme for School Education and Teacher Education, the new name is known as Samagra Shikhsa Abhiyan – a holistic approach to education from pre-nursery to Class XII.
Rymbui said Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan subsumes three schemes, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and Teacher Education, which fall under the central support scheme.