Verification of marksheets by varsities reason for delay in salary to new teachers: Min
LUCKNOW: The state government recruited 69,000 assistant teachers for government primary and upper primary schools in October and December last year. Of these, more than 50,000 teachers have not received their salary till date and quite a few of them even succumbed to Covid-19 after they contracted infection during panchayat poll duty, the UP Primary School Teachers Association claimed on Tuesday.
Accepting the fact that there has been an inordinate delay in distributing salary to newly appointed teachers, the minister of state for basic education (independent charge), Satish Chand Dwivedi, said the problem is that universities are taking a lot of time in verifying marksheets of these newly recruited teachers.
“We have verified high school, intermediate and TET marksheets of the newly appointed teachers, but their graduation and B Ed marksheets are to be verified by respective universities from where they pursued the course. Due to Covid-19, universities are working with fewer staff. Hence, there’s a delay in verification of documents,” he said.
“I had expressed my displeasure over the slow pace of verification of documents for newly recruited teachers that is a hurdle in giving salaries to 69,000 assistant teachers recruited last year. I asked officials to expedite the work,” the minister said. He said instructions were issued to pay arrears to teachers who had passed away.
According to the UP Primary School Teachers Association, newly appointed teachers get about Rs 40,000 per month. It will be an additional load of Rs 2.76 billion on the state exchequer. Association president Dinesh Chandra Sharma had made a suggestion that the basic education department take written undertakings from teachers but distribute their salary.
To expedite the process, the minister has now asked officials to take written undertakings from newly recruited teachers that if in the verification process their documents are found to be fake then they will return the entire salary to the state exchequer without question.
In a review meeting held on Tuesday, the minister ordered action against the Basic Shiksha Adhikari and account officers of Ghazipur district for lapses in salary disbursement of teachers. The action was initiated during divisional level meetings with officials of Varanasi, Vindhyachal and Prayagraj. He said that strict action will be initiated against BSAs for not issuing last payment certificates to teachers who were transferred to other districts. Dwivedi said that he had even issued clear instructions to all departmental officials to expedite payment of salaries to newly recruited teachers and those transferred to different districts. The minister held a virtual review meeting at the divisional level with officials on
Monday. He stressed on the payment of pension, general provident fund of retired teachers after reviewing the status of action against teachers who had joined service on fake documents. The minister asked officials to lodge FIR and initiate the process of recovery from them.
Keeping in mind the recent Panchayat polls, the minister asked officials to reach out to the newly elected village heads and seek their cooperation for Operation Kayakalp in schools.
The teachers association further alleged that despite being allowed to work from home, primary school teachers in various districts, including Lucknow, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Banda, Basti and Hardoi, were being deployed at integrated Covid control rooms, which was a threat to their health. The minister directed that pregnant teachers and those having small children or undergoing treatment should not be deployed for duty by the district administration.
Primary school teacher Ramesh Kumar Yadav, 28, died battling Covid-19 on April 23 in Sultanpur. He was among the 69,000 who had got a job when fresh recruitments of assistant teachers were made. The wait for the job had been a long two years as the matter of recruitment had gone to court. Yadav passed away without even getting his first salary. He had been pressed into the panchayat election duty.
He was posted at Primary School Adampur, in Sultanpur, in December last year. His family fears he contracted the infection during election training and his condition worsened soon after election duty on April 19.
Sunil Kumar Singh, a resident of Jaunpur, passed away on April 24, also without getting his first salary. He got posted at a primary school in Hardoi and was called in for panchayat poll training and election duty.
For 40-year-old Sunil, it was his first government job as he was appearing in several competitive exams. He had not got married and was waiting to land a government job before he took the plunge, said Satish Singh, his elder brother, who lit the pyre.
It took the state government two years to wrap up the appointment of 69,000 assistant teachers in government primary and upper primary schools across the state. Posts were advertised in December 2018 and the state government could complete the appointment only in December 2020, after a longdrawn legal battle in the high court and Supreme Court after candidates filed a lawsuit.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had distributed appointment letters to select new recruits in October and December and even interacted with them while others received them from local MLAs, MPs and ministers in the Yogi government in their respective districts. The CM had even advised them to do their duty sincerely and should not come with a request seeking a transfer to their home districts at the time of distributing the appointment letter.