In a bid to find out an amicable solution to the RMSA tangle, State Education Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani convened a meeting with RMSA officials at Vidhan Sabha on Saturday. The meeting was attended by Additional Chief Secretary S Raju and Director-General of School Education D Senthil Pandian during which they discussed how to continue the service of outsourced employees who have been recruited under RMSA. It was decided that they would write to the Union Government. Notably, the Centre has stopped funding the project.
During the meeting, officials disclosed that State Government had written to the Centre and requested it to allocate special fund so as to enable the State to continue with the posts, but they were yet to consider the demand.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Naithani instructed them to keep up such posts where the employees had been recruited through UPNl or other outsourcing agencies. However, the officials said the Finance department was against keeping such posts alive as it would add to their burden. The project being Centrally funded, why the State Government take up burden on their behalf, they asked.
The Education Minister asked the officials to be considerate because the matter relates to their livelihood. Chief Minister Harish Rawat assured that he would have detailed discussion on the matter on April 9. During the meeting, Additional State Project Director Shashibala Choudhary and delegates of RMSA were present. Meanwhile, RMSA officials took out a rally and collected funds through begging for the Union Government. They said that as the Centre has expressed inability to fund the project it is their moral duty to help them.
The State president of the association, Gambhir Singh Bisht said the HRD ministry had stopped funding their salaries under RMSA. He blamed the BJP MPs from the state for not taking up their case with the Centre. He said the state government should continue their contractual services as livelihood of hundreds of families is at stake. Five members of the association who were sitting on an indefinite Dharna were forcibly lifted by the police personnel and were admitted at Doon Hospital.
The Education department had employed 1258 office/laboratory assistants under RMSA in various schools of the State. After serving for over four years, the State Government recently decided to terminate their services as the Centre decided to stop funding their salaries under RMSA.