3% annual hike, retirement benefit worth Rs 3 lakh for para teachers

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced a slew of projects for holistic development of the education sector in the state while delivering the Budget in the state Assembly on Friday. She announced enhancement of remuneration of para teachers and grant of retirement benefit of Rs 3 lakh for them. Students of class XII will get tabs every year from the next financial year under the Taruner Swapno project.

"We have already enhanced the remuneration of the para teachers by 40 per cent in 2018. I propose an annual increment of 3 per cent for them from the next financial year and in addition they will be given a one-time ex-gratia of Rs 3 lakh as retirement benefit after completion of 60 years," Banerjee said in her Budget speech, adding that she proposes to allocate Rs 100 crore for the same in the next fiscal. The para teachers across the state have been agitating, demanding parity of salary with the regular teachers. The state government has already given Rs 10,000 each to more than 9 lakh students of class XII for buying gadgets this year. The scheme will continue in the same manner for class XII students every year. She also proposed to allocate Rs 900 crore for the same during the next financial year.

Banerjee also announced the proposal of opening up 100 new English-medium schools for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and the poor in the next three years. She also proposed setting up 500 new schools for extending educational facilities in Alchiki and engaging 1,500 para teachers in the same language in the next five years.

For educational upliftment of those who speak Nepali, Hindi, Kamtapuri, Urdu and Kurmali languages, Banerjee announced opening up of 100 new schools in the next five years. She further announced the opening of 100 new schools for Sadri language in the tea gardens. She also announced approval of 200 schools of Rajbanshi language.

Banerjee declared that she will be allocating Rs 50 crore in the next fiscal for grant of government aid to the Madrasas. She further proposed to set up a special training centre for IAS and IPS examinations.

As many as 100 students will be trained at the centre and the state government will take care of their food and lodging. They will be given monthly stipends as well.