Bihar: BJP promises pay hike for contractual govt school teachers

Patna, Aug 1: Bihar BJP today promised better pay scale to over four lakh contractual or 'fixed salary' teachers of government schools and to raise their retirement age from 60 to 62 years, if it comes to power after the Assembly election.

The announcement comes two days after the Nitish Kumar led JD(U) government decided to provide a pay scale of Rs 5,200-20,200 to trained and untrained contractual teachers.

"We feel the pay scale announced for teachers earlier working on 'fixed salary' is low. We will implement a new scale if our government comes to power after the Assembly elections," senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said.

"The teachers will get at least 20 per cent more than what they will get according to the new scale. We will also increase their retirement age from 60 to 62," the former Deputy Chief Minister told reporters. Modi gave credit to the teachers who were agitating for a couple of years demanding pay-scale based salary.

BJP and former Chief Minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi supported them. Stating that the state government has provisioned a single scale for both primary and secondary government teachers, Modi said his party will provide separate pay scales.

He also said that the pension of such teachers will also be increased. Modi also said that the BJP will reverse the decision taken by the present government to end posts of teachers working in Rs 9,300 to 34,000 pay scale as they retire.

Lambasting the JD(U) government for delaying solution to problems of teachers for almost four years, Modi said new transfer and pension policies will be implemented if his party is given the mandate to rule the state.

He said the state government had decided to provide salary to teachers directly in their bank accounts way back in 2011, but has been unable to implement it till now. Over 70,000 men and women who have qualified in Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) are still unemployed, he said adding BJP will give them jobs after forming the government.

The BJP leader accused Kumar of playing with the sentiments of teachers around poll time and not according them proper respect. "Kumar had increased the salary of teachers by Rs 3,000 in 2010 when the state was going to polls. When the polls are approaching again now, he has announced a pay scale for them," Modi added.

PTI