Shillong, Dec 23: Education Minister Lakmen Rymbui on Thursday said the state government is not taking things lightly on the issue of the SSA teachers.

“The state government is on the job to do what is needed to be done towards the SSA teachers… questions should not arise that we are keeping the things pending,” said the Education Minister.

He also informed that the Government of India has sanctioned an amount of Rs. 53 crore which will cover the two months pending salary of the SSA teachers.

“This amount sanctioned yesterday is only for the first installment and therefore the state government is pursuing for the second installment,” said Rymbui.

He further stated that the State Government is working with the Central Government to ensure that more funds should be sanctioned to ease the problems of the SSA teachers.

“We are there to serve the people of the state to the best of our ability and we will never shy away from our responsibility…we are in good communication with various stakeholders on what we can do and what we cannot do, we are trying ways and means to solve the problems of the teachers,” added the Minister.

He assured that the government is doing its part to the best of its ability and will act accordingly to the availability of funds.

He further informed that the Project Director of SSA is under communication with the AXIS Bank (bank directed for the salaries of the teachers) and the Bank has stated that whenever they receive the funds they will directly release it to the respective DMC so they can release directly to the respective stakeholders.