North Headmasters place common grievances at coordination meeting

MANGAN, 27 Nov:  School Headmasters along with the SUTWA President placed a 14-point agenda framed by the Headmasters of Primary Schools and Junior High Schools at a coordination meeting held at the Mangan BAC conference hall here on 24 November.
The agendas were: fund requirement to be fulfilled according to nominal roll; monthly payment must be made available by the second working day of every month; GPF, CPF and GIS subscription should be made available on-line; bank loan instalments should be added in the net salary so that responsibility of repayment is taken by the concerned teachers and HMs; draft/ challan relating to LIC, income tax and professional tax be issued before the 08th of each month; arrear bills up to November 2011 should be sanctioned and the payment should be made before closing of school for winter vacation; leave encashment orders and payments should be made available within the stipulated time; provisions for TA/DA for headmasters under BAC; Mid-day meal reimbursement be made in time; stationary and ancillary grants be enhanced as per requirement on a timely basis; relieving orders of staff members be issued through proper channel; role of Cluster Resource Coordinator be clarified by the Department; circular of BDO for the payment of salary and medical re-imbursement should be released on time as many are pending.
The teachers also highlighted that it was unfortunate that salaries are not disbursed on time due to which teachers are not able to pay the monthly loan instalments and other deductions. The department disburses just the basic salary to the teachers instead of their gross salary, consequently teachers are unable to contribute to various deductions, they added.
Here, they questioned the concerned authority as to who would bear the extra penalty for the late payment.
The grievances have already been placed to the Chief Minister on 15 April, earlier this year but remain unaddressed thus far, they highlighted.
The AO and Sr. Accountant, HRDD, clarified that, with regard to delay in salary disbursement, the problem lies with the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) as proper guidelines have not been provided to the Panchayats in preparation of utilization certificates. So, a proper channel at the District level between HRDD, BAC and RMDD is required to sort out the salary problem, they stated. They also informed that, loan draft will be cleared soon and DA arrears will be cleared later.
The Jt. Director, HRDD, North, informed that shortage of BAC staff and the RMDD being caught up in various other schemes and developmental work could be a reason behind the problems. So, the HRDD and RMDD officials will have to hold a coordination meeting to sort out the problems as soon as possible, he added.
He also informed that, in Government schools, the enrolment of students are verified at a very low level i.e. class I standard and added that the drop in student enrolment in government schools as compared to private schools is a matter of concern and needs to be looked into. 
For the Chief Minister’s Scholarship, selection of one student from each school of North district from the class IV standard is compulsory and all the selection reports have to reach the Department before the schools closes for the year, he informed. 
He further informed that, from the 2012 session ‘Legal Rights’ as a subject will be included in the new syllabus.
The meeting had SBS Branch Manager as the chief guest, who requested the HRDD officers to resolve the teachers’ salary problems at the earliest and coordinate better for a good education system.
The meeting was attended by officials of HRDD, Headmasters of all Schools of North District, Panchayats,,  Jt. Director, HRDD, Sonam Dadul, Dy. Director, HRDD, RN Singh, SUTWA President, Karma Bhutia, Principal of MSSS, RK Pandey, BRC Mangan, Kalzang Bhutia, AO and Sr. Accountant of HRDD, all headmasters of different schools and Panchayats.