Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced that the promised monthly allowance for sacked Group C and D employees of government-aided schools would be disbursed with effect from April 1.

The terminated Group C and D employees will get ₹25,000 and ₹20,000 per month, respectively.

The decision, approved at a meeting of the state cabinet on Wednesday, came a day after the non-teaching staff resumed their protest over allegations that the government was not making its stand clear on the allowance despite promising support.

Mamata told reporters at Nabanna: “We had said that the Group C and Group D employees who are not getting any salaries and struggling to run their families would be given a monthly allowance. The cabinet on Wednesday approved the decision. Under the labour department, we have developed the West Bengal Livelihood and Social Security Internal Scheme.”

Mamata added: “Through this scheme, they will be provided an allowance from April 1. Now that the cabinet has approved the policy decision, the allowance will be disbursed,” Mamata told reporters at Nabanna.

“The allowance will be paid till further notice. We have already moved a review petition before the apex court. We will abide by whatever the court says after hearing the petition. But if we don’t pay the allowance, these non-teaching employees will struggle to survive,” Mamata said.

The Supreme Court had, through an order on April 3, terminated the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff, citing a “vitiated” recruitment process conducted by the School Service Commission in 2016.

On April 17, the apex court heard a petition from the State Secondary Education Board and permitted teachers “specifically not found to be tainted” to continue working until December so that students did not suffer in the ongoing academic year.

However, the court refused to extend a similar relief to the non-teaching staff, citing “substantially high” irregularities in their recruitment.

The education department has since asked 15,403 teachers to resume duties.

Mamata met a delegation of the affected staff at Nabanna on April 25 after non-teaching employees began an indefinite protest outside the secondary education board’s office.

The chief minister on Wednesday said the sacked Group C and D employees were finding it difficult to make ends meet. “We have thought for them. Anybody has the right to reject the allowance. We cannot have any say in this,” Mamata said.

An official of the education department said that while the state government could identify 15,403 teachers as “not specifically found to be tainted” from a pool of 17,206 teaching staff, they could not make any such distinction among the non-teaching employees.

“In that case, the government has to pay a monthly allowance to 8,547 non-teaching employees,” the official said.

Bikram Polley, a Group C employee, said: “Although the allowance has been announced, we are upset because the state government filed the review petition unilaterally without consulting us. The chief minister, while addressing the sacked teaching and non-teaching staff at Netaji Indoor Stadium on April 7, said that those representing the teachers and Group C and D employees would be consulted before filing the review petition. We will continue our protest outside Bikash Bhavan (the education secretariat).”

Sujoy Sardar, who was part of the delegation that went to Nabanna on April 25, said: “It’s a pity that after working for so many years, we have to survive on an allowance. The state cabinet approved the allowance only after we resumed our protest. We are suffering because of the state government’s faults. The onus is on the government to ensure that our jobs are retained with full dignity.”