Tamil teacher at govt-aided school in Karnataka hasn't been paid for four years. Wondering why?

K Thanalakshmi, a native of Sankarankovil in Tamil Nadu, left her husband and two teenage girls back home to take up a job as a Tamil teacher at a government-aided school in Bengaluru. However, four years later, she is yet to get even a single month's salary at the Tagore Memorial High School (TMHS) in Yeshwanthpur.

With her Master's degree in Tamil and a BEd, Thanalakshmi got an appointment letter as a Tamil Pandit at the school on November 29, 2017. Her appointment letter states, "Your salary will be fixed and claimed only after the approval of your appointment by the Deputy Director of Public Instruction, Bangalore North Range-I."

While the government had given its approval for filling up the posts at TMHS and a few other schools in 2015, it has not yet cleared the appointment of specific individuals to the post.

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Thanalakshmi has been provided with a room to stay at the hostel here, and food has been arranged by the school management. "I want to be paid a salary more than anything else. I have still not been paid my salary even for one month," she told TNIE.

A Dhananjayan, President, Karnataka Tamil School and College Teachers Association, who has been running from pillar to post to assist her, charges that palms have to be greased in the Education Department to get things done.

Meanwhile, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education BC Nagesh told TNIE that the CM, at a meeting in Belagavi on December 21, had approved the appointment of many such individuals. "Her appointment would be approved soon and she would start getting her salary in the future," he assured. Nagesh urged her to come forward and file a complaint against anyone making any demands in the department. "Action would be taken against such individuals," he added.

Commissioner for Public Instruction S Vishal said that at least 70 school appointees in the Bengaluru and Mysuru Region were facing similar issues. "While the government mandates that the job needs to be advertised in a newspaper printed across the state, as well as the biggest circulated daily in the specific district of appointment, private institutions just place the ad in the district pages and try to circumvent the rules. If it is not done correctly, how can we approve such appointments?" he asked, adding that if the state decides to amend the Karnataka Educational Institutions (Recruitment and Terms and Conditions of service of employment in Private, Aided, Primary and Secondary Educational Institutions) Rules, 1999, or gives him permission in writing to approve the appointments, he would do so.