Patna, Dec 26 (IANS): The Bihar government on Tuesday granted 4 lakh contractual teachers the status of state employees, fulfilling their long-standing demand.

The decision was taken into the cabinet meeting here.

With this, the 4 lakh contractual teachers will be known as Assistant Teachers in the schools. Earlier, they were known as Shiksha Mitra.

The Bihar government, which was facing the scarcity of teachers in schools, had hired Shiksha Mitras in 2003 during the Rabri Devi government. At that time, they were given a stipend of Rs 1,500 per month.

However, the stipends got higher and they were now getting Rs 22,000 per month. Now, they become the state employees, the teachers of primary school will get Rs 25,000 apart from TA, DA, and other allowances, while Class 11 and 12 teachers will get Rs 31,000 apart from other allowances.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi claimed that the decision to confer Shiksha Mitra state employees' status was taken during his tenure.

"(Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar is unnecessarily taking credit for making Shiksha Mitra state employees. I had made the decision to make them state employees during my tenure. When Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister again, he cancelled the decision and said that it was wrong," he claimed.