Mumbai, Mar 19 (TOI): Though it is already mid-March, more than 23,000 teachers from state-aided schools are yet to receive February salaries. Protesting against the delay, a group of teachers on Sunday put up a 'black gudi' outside the house of education minister Vinod Tawde.

For the past few months, the state and a few teachers' organisations are in the middle of a court case over which bank should be used for salary accounts. In February, the Bombay HC struck down a decision to shift teachers' salary accounts from a nationalized bank to the Mumbai District Cooperative Bank (MDCB).

Tawde said, "We had to send the HC's February order to the law and judiciary department and then to the finance department. This takes about 20 days. So we decided to issue this month's salary through the old bank. But one of the teachers' organisations opposed it in the court. Now, paying through the old bank would be contempt of court."

Teachers, however, feel that they are caught in between the government and the various organisations. "We don't care which bank issues our salaries. We have expenses to meet and we have been struggling to do that," said Anil Bornare, head of the Mumbai unit of Maharashtra Rajya Shikshak Parishad. Neeta Vaz, a teacher from a Malad school said, "We have borrowed money to pay bills and EMIs this month."