An Open Letter to His Excellency, Governor of Jammu and Kashmir
Respected Sir,
I am extremely pleased to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to your kindself on behalf of whole erstwhile SSA teaching community for the historic decision to streamline the Salaries of SSA teachers of Jammu and Kashmir from the state exchequer. The transition of these teachers into Teacher Grade 2 is a remarkable step, and you deserve applause and acknowledgement for this bold step which successive political dispensations failed to take. The decision is hailed by the whole teaching fraternity, particularly by the erstwhile SSA Teachers.
It is to put on record that the rigid stance of previous political regimes had put the careers of more than 40 thousands teachers at stake. The uncertainty had plagued our academic standards which needed healing without wasting anytime. We are the people who can heal these bruises up. Your kind self displayed statesmanship gestures and melted the stalemate which had become the bone of contention between the people at the helm and these teachers.
With this historic decision, you have enabled teachers to have a sigh of relief. Their stress levels have considerably decreased. They are now motivated enough to discharge their duties with zeal and zest. The burden of uncertainty is over which is necessary for the smooth functioning of any job. The process of distribution of Teacher Grade 2 orders among erstwhile SSA Teachers is in full swing. Many districts have completed the process while as some are about to receive the orders within a short span of time.
All the people who were a part of this process deserve our special gratitude and thanks. Your kindself, your Hon’ble advisors, Chief Secretary of the state, Secretary to education, commissioner Secretary, Secretary finance, director School education, Chief education officers, Zonal education officers and all the clerical staff who burnt their midnight oil to complete the process in a record time. All of you have been compassionate and sympathetic enough towards our fraternity otherwise the issue was assuming dangerous proportions with every passing day. Had your goodself not resolved the issue, the scenario could been altogether different in our schools.
Now, we all, pledge to work with more dedication, sincerity, passion and honesty to better our academic standards which have a great scope of improvement. We ensure you the good work culture in our schools. I hope, my teaching fraternity will try its level best to compensate the academic losses resulted due to strikes and untoward incidents in the state in general and in the valley in particular. We promise to bring laurels to our department by the dint of our hardwork.
Your kind self didn’t stop here. In the last month, pending SSA Salaries rounding off to some nine hundred crore were released which had infused a new lease of life into the teaching cadres of the state. It was a breather for us. We were anticipating the whole pending salary in one go. It was indeed a good omen, a gesture of statesmanship. But, ironically, only two months were released by the state treasury which made the teachers unhappy because it is our hard earned money. And this amount was deducted by banks and other debtors whom we owe big amounts. We are again in those deplorable conditions. We still crave for pennies. Every employee deserves to be paid well in time, so deserve we. No doubt, our issue was a bit complicated but the recent resolution has paved way for the release of our with-held Salaries.
Our four months’ Salaries are still unpaid which has subjected us to enormous and uncountable hardships. I won’t give you the details of our liabilities because every human being has some or the other liabilities so have we. Our liabilities have piled up because our Salaries are released on festive occasions only. Even after the recent resolution of the issue, we are facing the same fate. You too are a human being rather a bigger hearted one, so you can understand it well. We are going through hard times. We have become virtual beggars. We are not able to wear the clothes of our choice. Our children are craving for candies and toys. We have sunk under the burden of debt.
Though your good self has resolved our burning issue but the problem of with-held Salaries has over flown the pot of our patience. We wish you to intervene personally. We want our pending Salaries to be released very soon so that the drought in our families will culminate. Our family life has been spoiled by it. We are highly hopeful that your good self will pay an attentive ear to our request, and will issue orders for the early and immediate release of our pending Salaries which have already been sanctioned. Your good self has proven it time and again. We hope that your kindself will give thorough consideration to our legitimate demands. We are optimistic enough. Your intervention has become inevitable to end our miseries. We hope that the with-held Salaries will be released as soon as possible.
With Regards
Mushtaq Hurra
(Teachers Grade 2)
The writer is a Teacher Columnist Poet Orator and a Social activist. He can be reached at [email protected]
