VIJAYAWADA : As many as 14,000 municipal teachers find themselves in a state of uncertainty over their salaries as the government mandates General Provident Fund (GPF) or Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) numbers to be updated with pay bills. The majority of teachers currently lack these numbers, leading to confusion and apprehension regarding their forthcoming pay.
The Finance Department issued a memo on the official website stating that the uploading of GPF numbers is mandatory from May 2024. The memo specifies that Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) are not allowed to submit pay bills for employees whose GPF and PRAN numbers are invalid. The State has 2,115 municipal schools, employing a significant workforce of 14,000 teachers. Among them, 5,000 teach in Municipal High Schools spread across 335 schools, while about 9,000 educators serve in 1,870 municipal elementary schools.
The implementation of the directive regarding GPF numbers, meant to secure teachers’ financial futures, has been patchy at best. Only Punganur Municipality has seen full compliance, leaving thousands of teachers in uncertainty.
The recent integration of Municipal Schools under the Education Department on June 24, 2022, aimed to streamline operations. DDO powers were delegated to headmasters of municipal high schools and Mandal Education Officers (MEOs) for elementary schools. Some Municipal High school Head Masters took the initiative to establish GPF accounts for their teachers, and the AG office has granted GPF numbers to those teachers. However, nearly 4,400 high school teachers do not have GPF numbers as their HMs remained silent. Many teachers remain without GPF numbers due to administrative lapses.
In addition, the Mandal Education Officers (MEOs), who serve as the DDOs for Municipal Elementary Schools, have also remained inactive, resulting in the absence of GPF accounts for almost all of the 9,000 municipal teachers.
State president of Municipal Teachers Federation S Ramkrishna decried the negligence of MEOs and high school headmasters, highlighting the potential halt in salary disbursement due to non-compliance with the Finance Department’s latest mandate stipulating the necessity of GPF/CPS numbers for salary generation, exacerbating the situation. He stressed the urgency of the matter, urging the Director of Treasuries to relax restrictions to ensure timely salary disbursal. In response, K Mohan Rao, Director of Treasuries, assured that municipal teachers’ issues would be addressed separately to avoid salary-disbursement disruptions.
Speaking to TNIE, Mohan Rao clarified the memo on the website is intended to facilitate the upload of GPF numbers for individuals currently possessing them. Meanwhile, Bandi Hena, State President of the Women’s Wing of the Municipal Teachers Federation, highlighted technical challenges faced by teachers in uploading new GPF numbers. She called for a prompt resolution to preempt further issues in salary disbursement.