Lucknow, May 20 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh government has finally decided to disburse the salary to thousands of newly recruited assistant primary school teachers.

The state government will disburse salaries after taking a written undertaking of the authenticity of their educational certificates.

Additional Chief Secretary (basic education) Renuka Kumar has directed the director general (school education) Vijay Kiran Anand regarding speedy disbursement of salary.

The delay, said the government spokesman, was because of the slow pace of verification of marksheets by universities.

According to the order issued by additional chief secretary, basic education, Renuka Kumar, the director general, school education has been asked to distribute salaries of teachers after taking a declaration from them.

The teachers would have to give an undertaking that if in the verification process their documents are found to be fake, their appointment will stand cancelled and they will return the salary to the state exchequer.

The state government recruited 69,000 assistant teachers for government primary and upper primary schools in October and December.

The teachers claimed that more than 50,000 of them are yet to receive their salary even after six months of their joining.

In fact, there have been cases where a few succumbed to Covid-19.

The basic education department while recruiting teachers verified high school, intermediate and TET marksheets, but their graduation and B.Ed marksheets were to be verified by universities from where they pursued the course.

Departmental officials said that since the universities were working with less staff strength, the verification is taking time.

The relief has been given keeping in mind the ongoing pandemic in the state because of which administrative work in several universities is hampered, making it impossible to carry out verification of degrees.

The order further warns the newly appointed teachers of legal consequences if the proof of their educational qualifications is found fake during verification later.

The undertakings from teachers will be collected and sent to the secretary (basic shiksha parishad) by basic shiksha adhikaris of all districts. The secretary will keep the original undertaking and send a scanned digital copy of the document to the office of the director basic (education) for safe keeping.

Minister of state for basic education (independent charge) Satish Chand Dwivedi said, "I had expressed my displeasure over the slow pace of verification of documents for newly recruited teachers that is a hurdle in giving salaries to 69,000 assistant teachers recruited last year. I asked officials to expedite the work," the Minister said.