New Delhi: Senior party leader and AAP MLA Atishi on Wednesday said that contract teachers of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) have not received their salaries since April 2020 and neither has their contract been renewed — as a result of which, she claimed two teachers had killed themselves.
Atishi accused the BJP-ruled corporation of not giving teachers their salary or any clarity on their contracts despite the suicides of two of them due to depression. According to the MLA, SDMC teachers had initially appealed to the civic body for help but when they were not given any attention or help, they reached out to the Delhi government for help.
The AAP said that Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has assured the teachers of all the help they can offer.
Prem Chauhan, Leader of Opposition in the SDMC, said, "Mayor (Mukesh Suryan) says that this time more than one lakh admissions have been done. But when you do not have teachers, who will teach these children?"
Atishi added that there are 550 contract teachers in SDMC and they have not received any salary since April 2020.
The teachers met with Chauhan, who later took them for a meeting with Atishi and Deputy CM Sisodia.
Sisodia said that they will get to the bottom of it
and try to help out all the teachers. He asked, "Since all the people are associated with South MCD, can they be brought on board under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan?"
An AAP statement said that the Delhi government has helped pay salaries of all teachers
Millennium Post reached out to Nikita Sharma, the Education Committee Chairperson of the SDMC, who said, "We have not been informed of any such cases (suicides) with the contract teachers. Plans to renew contracts are being made currently."
She also added, "We are trying to figure out how to pay teachers their salaries, and have already written to the Deputy Commissioner on this matter along with other officials. But the Delhi government is not releasing funds which is causing the delay."