Silchar: Hundreds of primary school teachers on Friday staged a sit-in protest outside the office of the district elementary education officer (DEEO), protesting the Assam govt’s decision to route salary payments of regularised Special Recruitment Drive (SRD) teachers through the SNA-SPARSH module.The protest, organised by the Cachar district committee of the Assam State Primary Teachers’ Association (ASPTA), drew participation from teachers across the district. They raised slogans against the new salary disbursal mechanism and demanded that the govt scrap the SNA-SPARSH system and restore salary payments through the state treasury.Protesters alleged that making the SNA-SPARSH platform mandatory for regular govt employees has led to administrative complications and delays in salary disbursal. They said teachers whose services have already been regularised should not be brought under a scheme-based payment framework.The teachers also submitted a memorandum addressed to Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya and education minister Ranoj Pegu through the DEEO, urging the govt to withdraw the order and ensure timely salary payments through the existing treasury system.The protest is part of a statewide agitation by the ASPTA against the govt’s decision to shift salary processing of more than 15,000 regularised SRD teachers from district treasuries to the central SNA-SPARSH platform and the Dispur Treasury. The association has said the move violates regularisation terms and has caused hardship due to delayed salary credits.The state govt has denied any fund crunch. Education minister Ranoj Pegu recently said there was no financial crisis and attributed the delay to technical changes and financial reforms in treasury workflow, assuring that pending salaries would be released once the transition is completed.
