Nagpur: Outspoken MLC from teachers’ constituency Nago Ganar on Friday blamed the state government for ‘sabotaging’ zilla parishad schools by making ‘unfriendly policies and purposely refusing to implement previous good ones’.
Recently on Teachers Day, some ZP staffers protested over pay related issues and also pending promotions.
Ganar, said, “There is a deliberate plan by the state government to sabotage ZP schools to a point where the entire system just shuts down. It’s an expenditure for them, and expenditure they do not want to incur.”
The MLC pointed out various issues that ZP schools are facing and said the government is first ‘demoralizing’ staffers. “House Rent Allowance (HRA) of teachers was stopped because officials issued a notification regarding that under political pressure. How can you stop the HRA of an employee for whom you are not even providing staff quarters? I fought at different levels for this and now HRA will be restarted providing relief to teachers,” said Ganar.
The other issue that ZP teachers have been struggling with is late salary payments. Ganar, said, “When this government took office in state in 2014, there was a promise made that salaries will come on time. In 2015, a GR was also issued related to it but the irony is that till date ZP teachers have not received salary on the first of each month.”
He said there was even provision for ‘minus financing’ to ensure that salaries do not get delayed. “Minus financing is like an overdraft where the salaries will be pushed through even if there is shortage of funds in government coffers,” said Ganar who is known to be close to union minister Nitin Gadkari.
“There is a clear cut plan to frustrate the teachers, depreciate the quality of education at ZP schools and collapse the system of public education. If government says enrolment is low at ZP schools then why are they promoting new private schools in the same area? Is it not a contradictory statement?” said Ganar.
