No 7th Pay Commission, but these staffers get salary hike good news; pay jumps to Rs 15,000 in Punjab

7th Pay Commission: Although the teachers did not get the most covetted salary payment system linked to the seventh pay commission report recpmmendations, they did get a very big gift and a pay hike that was in excess of even what was promised. The Punjab cabinet Wednesday approved regularisation of 8,886 teachers recruited under the central education programmes, an official spokesman said.

The cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, decided to regularise 7,356 teachers recruited under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), 1,194 teachers under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), he said. Also 220 teachers were regularised for model schools and 116 for Adarsh schools, he added. The decision was taken following the recommendations of the cabinet sub-committee constituted on the directives of the chief minister in this regard, the spokesman said.

Though the committee had recommended that services of all the teachers or employees be regularised by absorbing them, by creating these posts, in the school education department, subject to the condition that they would be paid Rs 10,300 per month (initial of the regular pay scale) for the three years, the cabinet decided to pay them Rs 15,000 instead, the spokesman said. On successful completion of the probation period of three years, their services would be regularised by the department, strictly as per rules, he said.

The committee also had recommended that seniority of these teachers be determined from the date of regularisation of their services. A period of 15 days would be given to all such teachers or employees to give their options. Inter-se seniority of all these teachers or employees would be maintained by the department, the spokesman said. In case of those who give options after 15 days, the seniority would be fixed based on the date when such option is received, he said.

The spokesman said no fresh recruitment of teachers would be made unless a complete rationalisation of posts in the department is carried out as per norms. An option may also be given to the teachers or employees in all the above societies to get their services regularised by getting absorbed in the department or continue to work in their respective societies. In case of the latter option, they will continue to draw their current salary, he said. 

The cabinet also decided that all future recruitments will be made in government of India pay scale, the spokesman said.

The cabinet sub-committee comprised Education minister O P Soni, Rural Development & Panchayats minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Local Government minister Navjot Singh Sidhu. The state government, under the SSA and the RMSA programme, has been recruiting teachers from time to time to meet the teacher student ratio. Both the programmes are being run under the centrally-sponsored schemes funded by the government of India and the state government in the ratio of 60:40, the spokesman said. 

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As many as 7,356 teachers have been recruited under the SSA programme (1078 ETT and 6278 master cadre). Similarly, 1,194 teachers, including head masters, have been recruited under the RMSA. The SSA caters to schools from classes 1 to 8 and the RMSA for classes 9 to 12. To avail the benefit of centrally-sponsored schemes, the state government under both the programmes has been recruiting teachers by following a transparent procedure, the spokesman added.