Union education minister assures to resolve delay in releasing pending dues of SSA teachers, midday meal workers

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 21, 2022

Union Minister for Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday assured that the Centre will find out a way to resolve the issues related to the pending dues of SSA teachers and the midday meal workers in the state.

Speaking to reporters, Pradhan informed that the state education minister Lahkmen Rymbui had raised the issues with him during the meeting.

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“We will find out some way because both Government of India and Government of Meghalaya, our primary responsibility is 15 lakh students,” he assured.

Meghalaya has witnessed frequent protests from the SSA teachers as well as the midday meal workers over the delay to release their pending dues.

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On Friday, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma had stated that the state government will continue to pursue with the Centre for timely release of the salary of the SSA teachers.

According to him, almost 80 percent of the fund comes from the Centre for implementation of the SSA programme in the state. 

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Meanwhile in March this year, the All Jaintia Hills Mid Day Meal Worker Union had sought the intervention of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the failure of the government to pay honorarium to over 15,000 midday meal workers for more than 5 months. This has affected the workers badly as almost 97 percent of them are women.