7th Pay Commission: Teachers salaries in Odisha may get reduced even as those in Rajasthan received early Diwali gift

7th Pay Commission: Block Grant Teachers in Odisha who were demanding pay on par with the regular state government teachers may have a harsher punishment imposed on them. The state government has decided to opt for 'No Work No Pay' policy for teachers and lecturers who go on strike.  

Much in contrast, the Rajasthan government has said that it will actually increase the salaries of the state government teachers as per the recommendations of the 7th pay commission.

Up further north, the teachers in Jammu and Kashmir have also been protesting for the implementation of the recommendations of the 7th pay commission. Those in Bihar are also in a queue and are yet to receive the pay hike benefits as per the 7th pay commission - they have threatened a strike, but the government is looking to placate them and that too soon.

The case in Odisha is a convoluted one. Block grant teachers here have been protesting as they want their pay to be on par with the regular government teachers. At the moment it is nowhere near that. 

The teachers, lecturers and other employees of 4,000 block grant schools and 1500 colleges were on strike for 42 days. However, they have resumed duty on September 24 but are sporting black badges in order to press for their demands.

What are their key demands?

1. They have been demanding equal salary as the teachers in government schools and colleges get.

2. They alleged discrimination in pay and perks in the comparison with regular teachers.

3. The block grant teachers claim that they don't enjoy government benefits such as DA, HRA, seniority in tenure, maintenance of service books, and pension among others facilities.

4. A state government teacher get a pay of around Rs 74,000 at the time of retirement while a block-grant teacher gets Rs 17,500, showed an IE Online report.

Watch This Zee Business Video

Their agitation had started way back in 2014 and it is still dragging. CM Naveen Patnaik had proposed to replace the block-grant system with a grant-in-aid system in 2017 with a condition that the teachers won't take the government to the court. This condition had forced the teachers to stay away from accepting the proposal under which they could have received not only the increased salary but also a hike in DA every three years as per the 6th Pay Commission. However, they would have been barred from taking certain actions thereafter.

The block-grant system is unique to Odisha. It allows local management to set up schools and select and employ teachers.