Ampareen Lyngdoh, D.D. Lapang
Shillong, Mar 3 : The Meghalaya cabinet today approved the implementation of the revised UGC payscale and DA to college teachers with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006.
Chief minister D.D. Lapang said after the cabinet meeting that considering the demand of the college teachers, they had decided to implement the new UGC payscale.
State education minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said the financial implications for the arrears alone would be Rs 70 crore.
The additional annual expenditure for the Meghalaya government after the implementation of the UGC scale for teachers would be Rs 16 crore.
The state would account for 20 per cent of the expenditure and the remaining 80 per cent will be borne by the Union ministry of human resource development.
The last revision of pay for the college teachers was in 1996.
Lyngdoh said the government was working on the ways and means to increase pay and allowances to other categories of teachers as well.
The cabinet also decided to change the guidelines of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for its smooth implementation to help the poor in the rural areas.
The state community and rural development minister Martin Danggo said the cabinet has decided to do away with the Area Employment Councils so that wages can be disbursed to the Village Employment Councils at the block levels.
At present, the blocks distribute the wages to the Area Employment Councils.
The employment councils in turn disburse them to the Village Employment Councils.
The purpose of changing guidelines is to speed up the effective implementation of the rural employment scheme.
The cabinet also decided to reduce VAT on the sale of cashew nuts from the current 12 per cent to 4 per cent to help cashew growers.
Taxation minister A.T. Mondal said at present 65,000 quintals of cashew nuts are produced in Garo hills every year, but the cashew growers are the worst affected because of the high rate of VAT.
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