Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 22: Expressing grave concern over the unrest amongst the teaching community in the State, chairman of JKNPP and former Education Minister Harshdev Singh has urged upon the Govt to appropriately address their genuine concerns including release of their pending wages at the earliest.
Lamenting the non- release of salaries of general line teachers and ReTs appointed under SSA and RMSA, for the last 7 months since April 2015, he deplored that thousands of families were on the verge of starvation due to the callous attitude of the Govt. He regretted that, the arrears of Education Volunteers (EVs) converted as RETs / teachers were pending for the last 18 months. It was ironical that the teachers who were described as pillars of the nation were forced to take to streets even for the release of their hard earned salaries, he added.
Describing the issue being agitated by the teaching community as most genuine, he said that non redressal of their grievances could seriously impact upon the academic activity in the schools for which the State Govt would be squarely responsible.
Highlighting the deplorable plight of the teachers, Harshdev said that the worst affected were the 55,000 ReTs appointed under SSA who had not only been deprived of their salaries but were feeling tormented due to reckless and unimaginative policies of the State Govt. He said that while those ReTs holding fraudulent degrees should be punished in accordance with law after proper verification, the genuine degree holders should not be harassed.
Mr Singh regretted that thousands of ReTs who had completed five years and were due for regularization since August 2014, had not been regularized despite lapse of over one year. He said that selection of hundreds of RETs was withheld despite the same having been finalized by the concerned committees. Calling upon the Govt to clearly spell out its policies on ReTs, he deplored that several ReTs were being threatened by their officers that they would be terminated in case they failed to qualify the written test.
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