RAWALPINDI, Sept 21: About 450 teachers of the now defunct municipal corporation’s schools have not been paid their salaries for the last two months, some of the teachers told Dawn.

They held the executive district officer responsible for the delay in the payment of their salaries for July and August. They claimed that the EDO did not take any interest in the problems of low-salaried teachers.

All the 33 municipal corporation schools, including eight high, five middle and 20 primary schools, were put under the control of district education directorate after June 30, 2002, as required by the Local Government Ordinance 2000. As such, the salaries of the teachers, numbering about 450, were also to be paid by the district government.

An official said the Punjab education department had not yet released funds to the district government for the salaries of these teachers, causing the delay. He said the district government had now provisionally released funds and all the teachers would be paid their salaries soon.

Teachers’ union leaders have also criticized the EDO for, what they termed, his apathy towards the teaching community. They said the EDO had come from the college side and was totally unaware of the problems of schoolteachers.

Due to delay in payment of salaries, the low-paid teachers have been living on loans, they said.

When contacted, the EDO was not available for comments.