Siliguri, Sept. 26: Teachers of two government-aided schools, whose salaries were held up by the education department, can now hope for respite.
The Darjeeling district inspector of schools, Somnath Biswas, has temporarily appointed two education department officials as drawing and disbursement officers of the schools.
“The officers have been appointed to take care of the salaries,” Biswas said. “They are coordinating with the school authorities to get the job done at the earliest.”
The salaries of over 30 teachers from Tarbanda High School, Phansidewa, and Shewmangal Memorial Hindi High School, Siliguri, were held up following the failure of the managing committees to issue appointment letters to headmasters selected by the School Service Commission (SSC).
The SSC had empanelled Dinesh Chhetri and Bhaskar Adhikari and sent recommendation letters to Shewmangal and Tarbanda respectively in May this year. Biswas said the school authorities did not respond to repeated reminders, forcing him to withhold the salaries for August.
“We hope to release the payments in a day or two,” said Asok Chakraborty, the officer for Shewmangal Memorial Hindi School. Swapan Kumar Dutta has been given the responsibility of the Tarbanda school.
Teachers of Shewmangal School met leaders of the CPM-backed All Bengal Teachers’ Association to find out ways of pressuring the education department for early release of their dues.
“We still do not know what will happen,” said P. Bose, one of the teacher representatives in the school’s managing committee. “The office staff and the teacher-in-charge are both on leave, which has affected official work in the school. Because of this, we have been told, that the appointed officer has not been able to procure the cheque-book and pass-book of the school’s bank account. Both the documents are required for payment, but are with the managing committee’s secretary.”
Kailash Nath Ojha, the secretary of the managing committee, was not available for comment.