By IANS,
Kolkata : It would be a bleak Teachers’ Day Monday for most college teachers in West Bengal who are yet to receive their salary since June.
The new Mamata Banerjee government, which had earned praise from school teachers for paying their salaries on the first of every month soon after they came to power, now need to find a way to soothe the ruffled feelings of the college teachers who are worried over their payment.
As per practice, the pay packets of college teachers are disbursed to the institutions in three instalments every year. While the first instalment is from April-June, the second one is for July-December and the last January-March.
The salaries are then paid to the teachers on monthly basis.
“This year, the first instalment was released in time. But the problems is with the second instalment from July-December which have not been released by the government yet. As a result, most teachers have received their salaries only upto June,” general secretary of West Bengal College and University Teacher’s Association Tarun Patra said.
“It is true that during the Left Front rule also our salary was delayed by one month or so, but not like this. Also now the government says they are going to release only one month’s salary before next month’s Durga Puja.
That means the teachers will have two months’s salaries pending during the Durga Puja,” said Patra. Only some colleges have managed to pay the teachers from their internal resources.
It could turn out to be a depressing Durga Puja for other college teachers.