THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On Tuesday, the staff of Sainik School Kazhakootam will be holding a two-hour pen-down strike against the state government’s denial of salary, pension and retirement benefits to them. Despite the previous LDF Government sanctioning the funds towards, it is yet to be allotted with red tapism playing spoilsport.
For the first time in the history of the Sainik School Kazhakootam since its inception in 1962 by the former defence minister V K Krishna Menon the December salary of the staff was delayed and was given in two installments.
The prestigious school had faced insolvency during 2020 which saw the central Government putting forth a proposal before the previous LDF Government to take over the burden of pensions and retirement benefits of the employees.
After much dilly-dallying, the then finance minister T M Thomas Isaac and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan agreed to the proposal almost a year ago. But the agreement is yet to be signed when it was supposed to come into effect from1st April 2021. The inordinate delay has caused anxious moments for the school authorities as currently it is being sustained by reserve funds from the centre on adhoc basis. A staff representative told TNIE that on Tuesday, 85 staff members decided to boycott for two hours from 9 am to 11 am.
“Our demand is that problems should be heard as currently the state and central governments have turned a deaf ear to us. We are no way against them, but our only means of income is our salary, which should not be delayed and denied. We have not got our January salary which should have been credited on Monday”, said a staff member.
The school officials feel that the crux of the issue is the lack of ownership of the school by the State Government. “The corridors of power in the Secretariat keep asking us on why should the State Government fund a school which is being administered by the centre? This entrenched mindset is a major hindrance to any aid coming to the school from the State Government”, told a school official to TNIE.
The fact is that Sainik Schools, unlike other central government schools, were established primarily to remove the regional imbalance in the officer cadre of its armed forces by selecting, motivating and training children from all states, especially those far flung from the border areas - to join the forces as officers. The brilliance of the Sainik School Kazhakootam is known when it has produced more than 800 officers so far since its inception in 1962.
The Centre plays its part by providing a unified administrative headquarters under the Ministry of Defence and three service officers, 3-4 NCC training staff and 2-3 PT staff per Sainik School. Balance funding in all aspects is to be met from the respective state governments including land, infrastructure, maintenance, vehicles and others.