Bihar: Peons get higher pay than teachers

A group of school teachers in Bihar, some of them even holding post-graduate degrees, will draw a salary less than that of peons after the state government's announcement of new pay scales for its employees.

There is a Rs 4,000 gap between the minimum salary drawn by a primary school teachers of the group, appointed on a consolidated salary, and the fourth grade employees. Teachers of 10+2 schools in the group also draw Rs 1,000 less than the peon.

The Bihar government had on December 23 implemented revised pay-scales in consonance with the recommendations of the 6th pay panel for its nearly 4.5 lakh employees and 3.42 lakh pensioners. The new pay scales will come into effect soon.

While implementing the new pay-scales, the government did not heed the grievances of the two lakh teachers from primary to plus-two level appointed on fixed pay ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 7,000, the group had lamented.

State's Human Resources Development Minister Harinarayan Singh said the "dynamic leadership" of the state will take up issue to contain the widespread resentment among these teachers.

Singh, however, did not give any time frame for a hike in emoluments of these teachers. But he said the government was committed to reviving an environment conducive to academic growth citing the example of recruitment of two lakh teachers on consolidated salary in the past three years. Another 93,000 would be shortly appointed, he said.