TMC govt hikes para-teachers’ pay
KOLKATA: PAY OF PARATEACHERS AT THE PRIMARY LEVEL WAS REVISED FROM ₹5,954 TO ₹10,000 AND THE SALARY OF THOSE AT UPPER PRIMARY SECTIONS WAS HIKED FROM ₹8,000 TO ₹13,000
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has announced a pay hike of 63-68% for 48,000 para-teachers in the state, adding to the list of about seven lakh state government employees for whom she had announced a raise in dearness allowance in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
The announcement of the hike was made by state education minister, Partha Chatterjee, at a programme at Nentaji Indoor Stadium in central Kolkata on Monday morning.
The pay of the para-teachers, who draw a fraction of the salary of the regular teachers in state-run and state-aided schools, was last revised in 2010 during the Left Front rule.
In the absence of regular teachers, para-teachers, appointed on a contractual basis, often form the backbone of teaching staff in many schools in the districts.
The monthly salary of parateachers at the primary level was revised from ₹5,954 to ₹10,000 (rise of 68%), while that of upper primary sections from ₹8,000 to ₹13,000 (62.5%). The revised salaries will be effective from March 1, 2018.
The enhanced pay would result into an annual outgo of around ₹576 crore from the state exchequer, as per estimates of the state finance department.
"In March this year, our chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, at a Nazrul Manch announced the government decision to hike the payments for para- teachers. So today I am happy to make this formal announcement in this regard,” Chatterjee said here on Monday.
The quantum of hike was not announced earlier.
Last month, Mamata Banerjee had announced 18% additional dearness allowance for 7 lakh government employees. She said that the annual outgo on this count would be around ₹5,000 crore.
The state’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) government also proposed extension of the tenure and ambit of paternity and child care leave for the state government employees that might be cleared by the state cabinet shortly.
Opposition parties, however, described the pay hike for parateachers as part of the state’s ruling party’s plan to appease the electorate before next year’s Lok Sabha election.
According to the leader of Left Parties in Bengal assembly, Sujan Chakrabarty, para-teachers were agitating for pay hike for a long time. "But the state government even allowed the police to attack them. There is no concrete proposal for making para-teachers eligible under the Employees State Insurance Scheme or gratuity,” he said.
Calling the Banerjee government’s decision as being part of a “gimmick”, national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rahul Sinha, said: “The chief minister and her government only believes in gimmicks. This is just another one.”