Balangir: A government school teacher, who reportedly has not received his salary for three months, applied for leave to work as a labourer at Bandhanbahal village in Puintala block of Balangir district.
The teacher, Prabhudutta Sahoo, posted at Government primary school in the village, alleged he has not received three months salary and applied for leave to work as a farm labourer to make ends meet. In his leave application to the headmaster of the school, Sahoo said due to non-payment of salary, he is facing severe financial constraints and has no other option but to work as a daily labourer to support his family. His leave was reportedly granted by the headmaster. Sahoo said if the situation persists, he may have to continue working as a labourer to sustain his family. He added that he has accumulated debts worth over Rs 30,000 and cannot take any more loans. "I may not have received my salary but I can avail leaves. So I took a leave and worked as a farm labourer," he said.
Additional District Education Officer Keshab Meher said Sahoo belongs to Odisha State Assistant Teachers cadre (ex-cadre). Salaries of such teachers were delayed for two months due to technical snags in digiGOV website which is used to process their salaries. He said now the system has been fixed in 12 out of 14 blocks in the district. The teachers of the rest two blocks will be paid their salaries soon, Meher said. There are a total of 809 ex-cadre teachers in the district. Recently, the accountants of the district education office had gone on strike after which the government decided to pay the salaries of ex-cadre teachers through digiGOV. Meanwhile, the state government has issued instructions to the education offices to ensure such incidents do not reoccur.
