Rymbui warns of withdrawing grant to SMCs if SSA teachers continue their street protest

Concerned by the ongoing protest, Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui requested the SSA teachers to resume their classes since the state government had complied with all requirements and is waiting for the Centre to release the first installment for clearing their five months’ pending salary.

“(However), if they don’t resume classes we have no other option but to either issue order of no work, no pay or we will withdraw the grant to the SMCs for those schools which are closed inspite of repeated request by the government of Meghalaya,” Rymbui warned.

He said the government will be left with no option but to take drastic action against the SMCs concerned if teachers continue to be out in the streets depriving students of education.

Stating that the government will not shy away from its responsibility to solve the issue at hand, Rymbui however said, “There are limitations to anything and the limitation (demand) that we have to work together.”

He added that the government is committed to streamline the system and take measures to ease the burden and pressure on the teachers.

“Having said that, it is not a very easy solution so I request the teachers to resume their classes,” he said.

Over 6,000 out of 12,541 SSA teachers have been sleeping on the streets as part of their ongoing indefinite sit-in-demonstration to protest against the government’s failure to release their five months’ pending salary.

Rymbui assured that as and when the Centre releases the first installment, the state government will immediately release to the SMCs for the payment of salary to the teachers.

“I have also explained to them (teachers) time and again that the state government will not waste time if funds are released from the Centre. We cannot do anything until and unless the government of India releases the share to the state government,” he said.

When asked, the education minister said, “The communication with the education ministry is every now and then that the government of Meghalaya needs the Centre to release the first installment. As of now, we have not got the information exactly as to when they will release the funds but we got the reply that releasing of funds is under process.”

He said that the central government share is 90% but there is a capping of Rs 15,000 for the salary. So the government of India pays 90% of 15,000 and beyond that the 10% plus the Rs 4,000 or Rs 5,000 plus is to be borne by the government of Meghalaya.

“As you have seen the notification of the government of India that this scheme is being extended till 2025 or 26 and every year the funding will be reduced by 5% so the complication is huge but as I said we will not shy away from responsibilities.”

Rymbui also recalled that when the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance took over the government in 2018, there was also a pending salary of four to five months but in the month of March that year, through intervention of the government, the state got an adhoc release of over Rs 135 crore with which the pending dues was cleared.

Reiterating that timely release of salary is his top most priority, he however said that the SSA programme is a very complicated subject adding it is very difficult for the government to do anything as the expenditure is huge.

On the SSA teachers’ demands for salary enhancement and merging of all existing SSA teachers from the State Implementation Society to the education department, the education minister said that the government’s mind is very clear that as of now it does not have the capacity to absorb all the teachers into the education department but it is still trying.

“As I said we are trying to streamline the education department to reduce the categories of teachers but this cannot be done in just one or three years as it involves a massive funding so as of now we have to see,” he said.

“During the last month when we increased/enhanced the salary for adhoc teachers, you will see that the intention of the government (was to ensure) the disparity between salary of teachers will not be that much. Therefore, we are working in the right direction but that direction we cannot complete in one or three years,” Rymbui further asserted.

If the government would come up with a corpus fund to address this delay by the Centre to release the funds to the state, the education minister however said, “We have exhausted our entitlement of corpus fund as Rs 79 crore, we have drawn from the corpus fund to meet the salary of the SSA teachers.”

By Our Reporter