Bhubaneswar, July 26: The state government today announced a 25 per cent hike in basic salary of teachers and employees of non-government aided schools. However, the increase has failed to satisfy all the beneficiaries.

The hike will be implemented with retrospective effect from June 1, 2016, for teachers of various high schools, upper primary schools, Sanskrit tolls and madarsas that had been receiving grant-in-aid in the shape of block grant.

A total of 31,500 teaching and non-teaching employees of the 3,701 schools will benefit from the salary hike as will 9,000 staff members of high schools, 232 of Sanskrit tolls, 1,831 of upper primary schools and around 550 of madarsas. That apart, they will also receive an annual increment of 3 per cent on such enhanced emoluments for each completed year of service.

School and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra made an announcement to this effect after the revised grant-in-aid order 2016 got the chief minister's approval. These apart, the private managing committees of the schools will be provided with funds to support social security measures to enable them to cover these employees under Employees Provident Fund (EPF) scheme.

"The detailed modalities in this regard will be formulated by making a system in consultation with the finance department," Mishra said.

As an interim measure, an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh will be given to the next kin of an employee who dies while in service. In case of permanent incapacitation, the compensation will be of Rs 1.5 lakh.

The teachers of non-government aided schools have been demanding abolition of the block grant system and implementation of grant-in-aid for a long time.

In May, these teachers demonstrated at Lower PMG Square for more than a month demanding abolition of the block grant policy and regularisation of jobs.

Prior to that, they were on strike for over 40 days in February. The teachers had called off their protest last month to undertake their board examination duties.

"A ministerial sub-committee was formed to look into their demands. On the basis of the recommendations of the sub-committee, the decisions were taken," said minister Mishra. The state government will spend around Rs 129 crore on the hike.

Teachers and staff members, however, have expressed their displeasure over the measures. "It is fine that the government has taken initiatives to better our lives. But, the hike will not bring uniformity between us and government employees, who get a much higher salary than us," said Manasi Behera, a member of Schoolteachers' Federation of Odisha.

Block Grant Secondary Schoolteachers' and Employees' Association have criticised the decision and are demanding revision of the order.

"These are political gimmicks and by giving us petty assurances they want to win our votes. If the government does not take action, we will boycott the upcoming panchayat elections," said association secretary Prashant Mahapatra.

"We give our entire life to teaching students, but we do not get due return. Our demands for promotions and pension instead of a fixed amount have not been fulfilled yet. We do not get facilitates such as TA, DA and home allowance," said Mahapatra.

The basic pay of the block grant teachers was earlier increased in 2008 from Rs 1,595 to Rs 4,995 and another in 2013 from Rs 4,995 to Rs 13,500.

The increase was made only after massive protests, he said.

Two days ago, the government had passed a salary hike for both teaching and non-teaching employees of non-government aided colleges.