Agartala, June 6 (TIWN): Tripura School Education minister Tapan Chakraborty today snobbed demands of regularization of contract teachers inducted under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan (RMSA) in the state and said that the government didn’t contribute to Uniform Cadre Policy mandated by the National Executive Committee of MHRD earlier this year.

Speaking to reporters at the civil secretariat, the minister said that the National Executive Committee (NEC) didn’t have any authority to issue the guideline of uniform cadre. “We want to raise the question of authorization by virtue of which the NEC had issued the mandate of introducing uniform cadre in all states in January this year including contract teachers of the flagship schemes. These decisions are taken by the Mission committees, usually headed by policymakers”, he said. The minister added that the state government would now wait and find out the outlook of the new central government towards the schemes”, he stated.

The Sarva Siksha Abhiyan was introduced as an intervention programme for augmenting the education rate in 200-2001 by the then NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The programme however finds its roots in the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) of 1993-1994 with the aim of achieving the objective of universal primary education.

Asked about future course of action of the state government regarding regularization of contract teachers, Chakraborty said that a meeting is likely to be convened in the officers’ level at Delhi over the flagship schemes. “We shall try to raise our issues at the meeting”, he said.

The minister further noted that a recent exercise indicated that the state government would need an additional Rs. 130 crore to regularize all teaching and non-teaching staff recruited under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan. “The state government is agreed to regularize all these teachers and non-teaching staff in principle. But there is no indication of the financial liabilities in the central guidelines. The state can’t unilaterally be imposed to take all the liabilities while the centre will choose to stay silent”, he said.

The All Tripura Contract Teachers Association organized a massive rally in Agartala two days back demanding regularization and benefits at par with state government employees. School Education Minister Chakraborty scoffed at the agitation and said that the leaders didn’t seek any appointment, didn’t seek permission to hold movement from the administration or the police beforehand.