AP: There is uncertainty around 14,000 teachers’ pay

Up to 14,000 municipal teachers are in a situation where their salary is unknown since the government requires that their Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) or General Provident Fund (GPF) numbers be updated with their pay bills. Most instructors don’t have these data yet, which causes uncertainty and anxiety about their future compensation.

On the official website, the Finance Department published a letter declaring that starting in May 2024, submitting GPF numbers would be required. According to the letter, workers with invalid GPF and PRAN numbers are not eligible for Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) to submit pay bills for such employees. There are 2,115 municipal schools in the state, and 14,000 instructors work in these institutions. Of them, around 9,000 educators work in 1,870 municipal primary schools, and 5,000 teach in Municipal High Schools, which are distributed across 335 campuses.

The GPF number mandate, which was intended to protect teachers’ financial prospects, has, at best, been inconsistently implemented. The only municipality to observe complete compliance is Punganur, which leaves thousands of instructors in suspense.

In an effort to simplify operations, Municipal Schools were recently integrated into the Education Department on June 24, 2022. Mandal Education Officers (MEOs) for elementary schools and headmasters of municipal high schools were given DDO authority. Several Head Masters of Municipal High Schools initiated the creation of GPF accounts for their faculty members, and those instructors have been given GPF numbers by the AG office. However, since their HMs said nothing, around 4,400 high school instructors lack GPF numbers. Due to administrative errors, a large number of instructors still do not have GPF numbers.

GPF accounts for almost all 9,000 municipal instructors are missing as a consequence of the inactivity of the Mandal Education Officers (MEOs), who operate as the DDOs for Municipal Elementary Schools.

The situation was made worse by Municipal Teachers Federation State President S. Ramkrishna, who criticized MEOs and high school headmasters for their carelessness and pointed out that the Finance Department’s most recent directive, which required GPF/CPS numbers in order to generate salaries, could potentially result in a halt to salary disbursement. In order to guarantee prompt pay disbursement, he emphasized the importance of the situation and urged the Director of Treasuries to loosen limitations. The Director of Treasuries, K Mohan Rao, responded by promising that the problems pertaining to municipal teachers will be handled independently in order to prevent delays in pay distribution.

In an interview with TNIE, Mohan Rao said that the website’s message is meant to make it easier for those who already have GPF numbers to submit them. The State President of the Municipal Teachers Federation’s Women’s Wing, Bandi Hena, brought attention to the technical difficulties instructors have while downloading new GPF numbers. She demanded an expedient conclusion to avoid further problems with pay distribution.