Rohit Kumar
Port Blair, 18 October 2021
Nicobar Times had earlier reported that the staff of Nirmala Senior Secondary School have not received their salaries since April 2021. The members of the staff are facing a lot of difficulties because they are not being paid their legitimate remuneration since a long time.
The staff of the school have now started a protest after school hours to press for the payment of their pending salaries. Earlier on Saturday, the staff staged a symbolic protest by dressing in black clothes.
Nicobar Times spoke to the protesting staff and they informed that they have decided to stage a protest every day after school hours and if their demand of payment of their salaries is not met soon, they will also resort to boycotting the school hours.
The staff of the school are in distress since a long time because of non-payment of their salaries and they have reportedly approached the authorities multiple times but their salaries were not released even after assurances.
Sources have informed Nicobar Times that the delay in payment of salaries to the staff of Nirmala Senior Secondary School is due to non-disbursal of the grant to the school management by the Education Department of Andaman and Nicobar Administration.
Nirmala Senior Secondary School is a Govt. Aided minority institution and it depends on the aid given by Andaman and Nicobar Administration to pay the salary of its staff. There are two Govt. Aided minority institutions in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the other one being the MES School located at Azad Nagar in South Andaman.
It is being reported the staff of MES School, Azad Nagar are also facing similar problems and had earlier resorted to protest after school hours to press for the payment of their salaries.
The reason for not releasing the grant to these schools by Andaman and Nicobar Administration is not clear as the Education Department has not responded to an email sent to them earlier asking for the reason for the non-payment of salaries to the staff of MES School, Azad Nagar.
The staff of Nirmala School are tweeting the problems being faced by them to the authorities under #savethesoulsofnirmala.