Shillong, March 17: The Meghalaya government was today asked to increase salaries of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) schoolteachers in the state who are now earning an abysmal pay compared to their counterparts in other parts of the Northeast.

Tabling a call attention motion in the Assembly, Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP) legislator Witting Mawsor apprised the government of remunerations earned by SSA teachers in other states of the region. Those salaries are comparatively higher than what the lower and upper primary schoolteachers are earning here. Giving the statistics, Mawsor said a lower primary school teacher in an SSA school in Meghalaya was earning Rs 9,200 per month and an upper primary school teacher was receiving Rs 9,900 a month.

Mawsor pointed out that in Sikkim, a lower primary school teacher was being paid Rs 42,000 per month while an upper primary school teacher got paid Rs 48,000 per month.

He said in Nagaland Rs 29,740 was being paid to a lower primary schoolteacher while Rs 31,740 was the salary of upper primary schoolteachers. There is a huge difference with the salaries earned by schoolteachers in Meghalaya, although they are doing the same job with same workload under the same scheme, Mawsor said.

He urged the government to hike the salaries of teachers and ensure their timely release so that they could impart quality education.

In his reply, deputy chief minister R.C. Laloo, who also holds the education portfolio, said the government is not involved in appointments of such schoolteachers. He said the respective school managing committees were appointing them on a contractual basis.

He said prior to 2013, a lower and an upper primary school teacher in an SSA school were drawing a salary of Rs 6,000 per month. However, in 2013, the government decided to increase the salaries to Rs 9,200 and Rs 9,900 respectively for the schoolteachers.

On Mawsor's reference to teachers in other parts of the region, Laloo said: "The department is aware of this. The teachers in those states possess#the requisite degrees and were appointed through a teachers' eligibility test. Hence, they are allowed to draw a regular pay."

In Meghalaya, he said, a regular primary schoolteacher was drawing a salary of Rs 22,000 to Rs 23,000.