Kohima, June 24 (PTI): The Nagaland Education department had salary payment crisis due to a shortfall of Rs 28 crore in the budgetary allocation for 2008-09, which was allegedly exhausted by making payments to over 2,000 bogus teachers. School Education Minister Nyeiwang Konyak on Tuesday said that the entire budget was drained out by January as the bogus teachers were paid from it.
This resulted in the crisis of salary payments to teachers in the state during months of February and March as the education department fell short of Rs 28 crore. At a two-day conference of Nagaland education officers, which concluded here today, the minister admitted that it reflected failure in monitoring the department’s affairs. The minister called upon all officers to sincerely discharge their duties by submitting monthly expenditure statements required for monitoring and regulating expenditure.
The shortfall meant that on an average of Rs 10,000 per employee was drained and there was an excess of over 2,000 employees on the payroll of the department from March 31, 2007 to March 31, 2008. A special investigating team (SIT) under state vigilance commission has been conducting a probe into bogus teachers’ appointments. The final report is yet to be submitted to the government.
