Dark Diwali for many across the country due to salary delays

Over 28,000 employees belonging to the Class-III clerical cadre in Indore, have been waiting for their salaries, which the state government has now promised to try and pay before Diwali. It is reported that a technical glitch had hindered the generation of salary slips in most government offices.

The officials of the Madhya Pradesh Class- Clerical Cadre III State Government Employees Association, and the Adhyapak Sangh feel that these are empty promises/ announcements and that the state government is not taking any concrete action.

The employees were expecting to receive their salaries before Dhanteras but a delay occurred again due to some technical snag in the server of the Treasury and Accounts Department. This issue in the server is responsible for the non-payment of the increased dearness allowance (DA) too, which was hiked to five per cent recently.

Elsewhere in the country, in Amritsar, Diwali will be far from bright for teachers and vocational staff working in about 40 schools run by the National Child Labour Project (NCLP). These teachers have been protesting as their salaries have not been paid. Amongst other grievances presented to the central government, they also complained about the bad quality of grains being supplied for the mid-day meal scheme and that the students were not receiving their uniforms or books on time. The mid-day meal staff had not received their wages for almost six months now. Funds were not being released to these schools on time to cover their expenses.