Consider early release of SSA teachers’ salaries: Guv to CS

Srinagar, August 14: Governor N N Vohra on Tuesday directed Principal Secretary Finance to give an Interim Report to the Chief Secretary on urgent basis so that appropriate decision could be taken regarding the payment of the salaries of SSA teachers.

At a meeting held at the Civil Secretariat here, Governor N N Vohra called for continuing capacity building of teachers through trainings and workshops to sharpen their skills and teaching abilities keeping in view the fast-transforming academic scenario.

The meeting was informed that the Government has constituted a high-level inter-departmental Committee, headed by Principal Secretary Finance, to examine the entire gamut of issues in the School Education Department, including rationalization of Schools, teachers and the staff as per the national norms, identification of surplus schools and posts; and the reforms needed to be introduced to improve the educational standards in the State.

The Committee will also look into issues relating to SSA teachers, including their salaries, and shall submit its interim report to the Government by 16th August 2018 and final recommendations by 10 November 2018.

Governor reviewed the functioning of the School Education Department, particularly with regard to the vacancies existing in the Department and to assess the status of the recruitment process underway to fill these vacancies.

Advisors to Governor, B B Vyas, K Vijay Kumar & Khurshid Ahmad Ganai; Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam; Principal Secretary Finance, Navin K Choudhary; Principal Secretary to Governor, Umang Narula; Principal Secretary Planning, Development & Monitoring, Rohit Kansal; Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education Sarita Chauhan; Commissioner Secretary GAD, Hilal Ahmad Parray, Secretary Education Rigzian Sampheal and Chairman, Services Selection Board, Zubair Ahmad attended the meeting.

Regarding the issue of human resource shortage in the Education Department, Governor asked the recruiting agencies to expedite recruitments against teaching and non-teaching posts and stressed the need for taking urgent measures regarding confirmation of all the promotions made from time to time as per the norms in OPG. He directed convening of time-bound Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meetings to fill up the vacancies at various hierarchical levels and create career progression opportunities for the employees of the Department.

Regarding establishment of separate Human Resource Management Branch and constitution of a dedicated Recruitment Board for the Education Department to fast-track recruitments, Governor asked the Chief Secretary to consider all related issues in this regard and advise him early.