Primary and Education Minister B.C. Nagesh on Tuesday assured the Legislative Council that a meeting with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will be convened soon to solve the problem of ‘notional salary’ among teachers in private aided institutions.
His assurances came after much persuasion from members across parties, who urged him to provide a closure to the three-decade-old issue.
The issue pertains to the gap years of work of teachers from the date of their joining and the date of awarding grant by the government, which the government considers “notional” work. Members pointed out that in many cases, there has been a huge gap sometimes extending to more than 10 years, and there is loss of salary and pension benefits for those working years.
“The Law Minister (J.C. Madhuswamy) has assured to study the matter that is now in the High Court. It can be discussed at the meeting involving MLCs and representatives of teachers,” said Mr. Nagesh. Earlier, both Mr. Nagesh, and Higher Education Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan suggested that since the matter is in court it was better to wait till the judgement, which was resented by members, mostly elected from teachers’ constituencies.
BJP member S.V. Sankanur suggested a compromise decree in which teachers who have approached the court can withdraw the case if the Government was willing to consider their demand. Janata Dal (Secular) member K.T. Srikante Gowda, who initiated the discussion, suggested that the fixation of salary for thousands of teachers in primary and high schools and colleges would cost not more than ₹360 crore.
