Teachers' Day: Lohardaga teachers not to celebrate

LOHARDAGA: As many as 815 teachers from 394 primary and middle schools will not celebrate Teachers' Day on Wednesday. The decision was taken by the Jharkhand Prathmik Shikshak Sangh in protest against the government's failure pay their pending salary.
Teachers of near 300 primary and 94 middle schools have not been paid their salary for July and August.Reason: the district has 74 posts of drawing disbursement officers (DDOs) and all these pots are currently lying vacant. Since promotion of teachers has been pending in the district for several years now, no school has headmasters who are DDOs to sign the cheques for teachers' salary.
The lone DDO in the district retired in March. The area officer was then given the charge of the single DDO of the district but the post remained vacant after he was transferred to Pakur in July. On August 28, primary education director had ordered DSE Farhana Khatoon to countersign the cheques but she has informed the director that due to work pressure she was not able to sign them.
"As we have not been paid our salary for July and August, we have no other option other but keep ourselves away from the celebrations. The decision was taken at a meeting held to discuss the issue. We've also decided to give moral support to the state para teachers who are currently on an indefinite strike," said primary teachers' association principal secretary Kishore Kumar Verma.