Merging of SSA, RMSA teaches with education dept under consideration: Edu minister

Punjab Education Minister Aruna Chaudhary today said the matter pertaining to merging of the SSA, the RMSA teachers, head masters and lab attendants with the education department and fixing their salaries was under consideration.

The minister was replying to the Calling Attention Notice of AAP MLA and leader of opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira on the third day of the ongoing budget session in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha here.

Khaira drew the attention of the education minister towards the resentment among the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) teachers, headmasters and lab attendants, who were working on contract basis, due to the government's decision to regularise their services in a basic pay scale of Rs 10,300 per month for three years.

He told the House that the teachers were getting salaries between Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 per month.

"As the state is going to regularise their jobs, their salary will come down by Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 per month and it has resulted in resentment," Khaira said, demanding that the government not reduce the salaries.

The Akali and BJP members demanded an Adjournment Motion on farm debt waiver and issues concerning Dalits in Punjab.

When the Speaker did not allow their Adjournment Motion, they trooped into the Well of the House, shouting slogans against the state government.

During the presentation of reports in the House, Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts Kanwar Sandhu, an AAP MLA, tabled four reports on the appropriation accounts of the Punjab government.

While presenting the reports, Sandhu accused government officers of not taking PAC seriously and failing to send their replies on queries posed by the committee.

He demanded the Speaker make the proceedings of the committee on public accounts open to the media so as to ensure that the committee was taken seriously.