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JAIPUR: Ravi Sharma (name changed), a government teacher from Chaksu, celebrated a cash-crunched Holi this year, as he is one of the teachers in the state who haven’t received their salaries for the month of February.

At present, around 2,30,000 teachers — both elementary and secondary — are employed in the state, out of whom, three fourth of the teachers, which is around 1.5 lakh, haven’t received their salaries for February while the month of March is about to end. Members of the teachers’ association of the state said that the government withdrew the budget given for the salaries, to utilize it for some other work. Prakash Mishra, spokesperson of the Rajasthan Teachers’ Association (Shekhawat), said that the government is facing severe cash crunch, especially after the distribution of money in many populist decisions it recently made. “This is the first time in many years when the government has withdrawn budget allotted for employees in bulk. The spirit of Holi was dampened and we have been receiving complaints daily from around the state about the non-payment of salaries, as it has become difficult for many to manage their households,” said Prakash.

Govind Singh Dotasra, minister of state for primary and secondary education (independent charge), while talking to TOI said that this problem will be solved by next week. “We have got the financial sanction from the government for Rs 130 crore, which will be distributed amongst the teachers.

However, there is still a need of Rs 80 crore, for which we have to wait for some time as it is still stuck due to some technical problems and we are trying to find a solution for it,” said Dotasra. The minister though denied that the government is short of cash or has withdrawn the budget to be utilized in some other department. “Due to some technical glitch, there is a delay. The budget was never withdrawn and the government is self-sufficient to pay the employees,” said Dotasra confidently.

