Annoyed by delay in payment of salaries, the Government schoolteachers have threatened to stay away from duties in the Assembly elections. Teachers form the biggest chunk of the State Government employees and they are vital in the smooth holding of elections. The association of primary school teachers the Prathmik Shikshak Sangh (PSS) and Junior High School Shikshak Sangh (JHSSS) have stated in unequivocal terms that they would stay away from the election duties if the pending salaries of 6,500 teachers deployed in the schools under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) are not released. These 6500 teachers belong to the primary school and junior high schools of the State.
Uttarakhand is going to vote to elect new assembly on February 15 and the State election commission has started the process of training of personnel for elections.
The general secretary of the PSS which is the biggest organization of teachers in the state, Digvijay Singh told The Pioneer that teachers deployed in the schools of SSA have not received salaries from last three to four months due which there is resentment in the organisation. “The department officials always put the onus of delay in salary of SSA teachers on non receipt of budget from the union government; we had suggested that the state government should generate a treasury code of these teachers and pay their salaries from its budget and adjust the budget of SSA whenever it is received,’’ he said.
The President of JHSSS, Subhash Chauhan told The Pioneer that the association has written a letter to the chief electoral officer and informed about the decision. He said that JHSSS has set a deadline of one week for the pending salary disbursal and if this does not materialise, the teachers would be forced to boycott election duties.
There are more than 70,000 teachers that are serving in the government schools of the state. The teachers form about 50 per cent of total government employees in the state and the threat to boycott the election duties by them could pose problems for the election commission. One of senior government official said that like other government employees teachers are duty bound to perform election works and boycott could invite appropriate disciplinary action.