Punjab blames Centre for delay in SSA teachers’ salary

CHANDIGARH:The Punjab government on Friday blamed the Centre for delay in disbursal of salary to teachers employed in government schools under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), who allegedly have not been paid salaries since September 2016.

The Punjab government said the Union government had not released its 60% share of funds to the SSA, Punjab, for 2016-2017. Against a liability to pay Rs 423.69 crore, the Centre released only Rs 270 crore as the first instalment of which Rs 263.45 crore was spent on salaries of SSA employees, the court was told.

The government said the Centre’s second instalment was yet to be released. The state paid salary to the SSA employees for September 2016 from its own sources. Despite several reminders, the Centre is yet to release the remaining amount. File for the release of salary for October and November 2016 from state sources has been cleared by the finance department and salary for two months would be released soon, the Punjab government said.

The Centre is yet to respond to the petition and sought time from the court till April 20.

The high court was hearing a petition in which it was argued that due to a stalemate between Punjab and the Union ministry of human resource development (MHRD), the latter has not released funds to state under the SSA scheme.