Salary delay is becoming the order of the day in more projects jointly run by the Union government and the State government in Kerala.
After the late payment of wages for the staff at the National Health Mission (NHM) kicked up a row in recent days, those attached to the Samagra Shiksha, Kerala (SSK), too have found themselves in a similar situation.
Samagra Shiksha is a project that subsumed what was earlier known as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, and Teacher Education schemes. While the Union government is supposed to provide 60% of the project funds, the rest is given by the respective State governments. The Centre is not releasing its share to the SSK now because the State government was earlier reluctant to join the Prime Minister’s School for Rising India (PM-Shri) scheme, being implemented by the Samagra Shiksha across the country. In the case of the NHM, the State government had differed with the Centre over the branding of health centres and their colour code.
The PM-Shri scheme was envisaged under the National Education Policy, against which the Left Democratic Front-led State government has raised political objections. According to sources, the Union government is yet to release around ₹168 crore to the SSK for the 2023-24 financial year. Though the government recently agreed to join the scheme, the Centre has neither cleared the dues for the previous financial year nor released the funds for the current year. Because of this, the salaries for around 6,000 staff across 14 districts have been delayed since April. The salary for May was released only by mid-June and the salary for June was released on July 29.
Of the 6,000 staff, 4,000 are hired on contract basis and the rest are deputed from the General Education department. They include special educators and specialist teachers who attend to differently-abled students, cluster coordinators, management and information system administrators, data entry operators, office assistants and drivers. Right now, the State government is utilising its own funds to pay the salary to these people.
Meanwhile, the State government has reportedly received the first instalment of the funds for projects under the NHM for this financial year after it agreed to rebrand health centres as ‘Ayushman Arogya Mandir’ with a tagline ‘Arogyam Paramam Dhanam’, and a change in colour scheme of their outer walls to yellow metal. However, the dues for 2023-24 are yet to be cleared.