Bihar government announces sops for teachers, doctors before polls

PATNA: The Bihar government today declared pay-scale based salary for its over 4 lakh contractual teachers and raised the retirement age of doctors working in the poll-bound state from 65 to 67 years.

The decision in this regard was taken at an hour-long cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at the state secretariat here and is expected to raise the financial burden on exchequer to the tune of around Rs 3,000 crore every year.

Cabinet Coordination Department Principal Secretary Shishir Kumar Sinha said, "The state cabinet today approved Rs 5,200 - 20,200 payscale for trained and untrained primary, middle, high and higher secondary teachers as well as librarians working in state government schools on contract. It will be implemented with retrospective affect of July 1, 2015."

Sinha said a total of 4.05 lakh employees will benefit from the move. The trained primary teachers, secondary and higher secondary teachers, librarians will be given a grade pay ranging between Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,800.

However, the untrained teachers and librarians will be provided a chance of attending two-year training courses with full pay.

Elaborating about the cabinet approval, Education Department Principal Secretary R K Mahajan said, "The grant of pay scale to contractual teachers is expected to impose a financial burden of Rs 2,950 crore on the state exchequer per annum. The teachers falling under various categories will now get a salary anywhere between Rs 12,000 to 19,000."