Some 6,000 primary school teachers have not received salary for over a year now due to bureaucratic tangles.

The suffering teachers said they were initially hired by the Primary Education Development Project (PEDP) under the development budget with assurances that their services would be regularised under the revenue budget on completion of the project.

The project financed by the Asian Development Bank and

International Development Assistance of the World Bank was aimed at improving primary education.

When the project ended in June last year, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education posted the teachers to different primary schools across the country and asked them to wait for clearance from the establishment ministry. But they arc yet to get salaries.

Sources said the establishment ministry Is still awaiting clearance from the finance ministry, resulting in the non-payment of teachers'

salaries for such a long time.

"We arc in a state of total uncertainty and passing our days in dire distress for over a year. But the government is yet to look into our plight," said one sufferer, Shamim Ahmed.

Many other teachers expressed similar frustrations.

When contacted, Jahan Ara Begum, adviser to the prime minister, said the proposal concerning these teachers was forwarded to the finance ministry in time.

"We have nothing to do in this

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regard as we are unable to pay salary as the funds come from the finance ministry," Jahan Ara said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the government has taken up a programme to recruit an additional 35,000 primary teachers under the Primary Education Development ProgrammeII (PEDP-II) involving an outlay of about Tk 5,000 crore for expansion and qualitative improvement of primary education.

The education ministry has received the highest allocation of Tk 7,680 crore in the budget for fiscal 2004-05 against Tk 6,740 crore in the 2003-04 budget.