Teachers unpaid amid ‘Sikhya Kranti’ campaign

Even as the Aam Aadmi Party ministers go on plaque-unveiling spree under the ‘Sikhya Kranti’ initiative, advertising the “education revolution that will sweep government schools”, many teachers are yet to receive salaries for March.

Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) state finance secretary and district president Ashwini Awasthi and secretary Gurbinder Singh Khaira said even as April was nearing end, a large number of the Punjab government employees, including teachers, had not received salaries for March. In February, the Punjab Finance Department had issued instructions to all Drawing and Disbursement Officers (DDOs), the authority for disbursement of salaries of employees, to deposit salary bills at the relevant treasury offices by the seventh of every month. “But the new system has failed to work effectively as the delay in the release of salary to all government employees, including teachers, has become a regular affair,” said Awasthi.

The Finance Department had issued instructions for releasing salaries through digital signature certificates from this financial year. A large number of heads/DDOs from across the state had sent applications, along with necessary documents, to Punjab Infotech, as per the instructions. However, Punjab Infotech has not sent the verification link to the heads/DDOs for online and offline applications sent in March. “Due to this, the dongle containing the digital signature certificate has not been received and the salary bills of the employees could not be generated. The government has issued verbal orders regarding the payment of salary bills only for those offices whose bills have been received from the relevant treasury offices on April 14,” said Awasthi.

The teachers rue that while the Finance Minister says that the state’s financial situation has improved and debt has come down, the delay in salary disbursal seems ironic and contrary to the government claim. Last month, teachers of government schools in Tarn Taran had organised a protest and gheraoed the office of the District Treasury Officer against the non-payment of salaries for February and March.

Punjab DTF president Vikram Dev Singh stated that the complicated procedure of securing digital signature through dongle makes it a tedious process, resulting in delay in salary disbursal. “The DDO has to obtain the DSC/dongle from Punjab Infotech by attaching an application, along with the required documents, and paying the prescribed fee. The process of obtaining DSC/dongle is complicated and due to this there may be delay in disbursing salaries to employees across Punjab,” he added.

Punjab