Maharashtra’s school education department has found 9,509 employees working above sanctioned posts across 3,625 schools during a preliminary review of the Shalarth system, prompting officials to seek explanations from education authorities on their adjustment and service status.
The review also identified 1,484 additional non-teaching employees across 1,206 schools. Primary Education Director Sharad Gosavi and Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Director Dr Mahesh Palkar have directed education deputy directors, education officers and pay-unit superintendents to submit details concerning these employees.
The directions followed a video conference review held on October 28, according to a report by Pudhari. The department’s action is aimed at addressing irregularities in the Shalarth payroll system and preventing discrepancies in salary-related records in aided schools and other institutions covered by the review.
The review found that 612 schools had employees working despite posts being sanctioned under the applicable staffing approval. In another 3,642 schools, employee records were absent from both the staffing approval records and the Shalarth system. The findings point to gaps between sanctioned staffing positions, school-level records and the payroll database used for employee-related processing.
The department also found that 842 schools had employee entries in Shalarth despite the absence of available staffing approval records. In addition, the service status of 10,695 employees who are detached from their Drawing and Disbursing Officer codes remains unresolved, according to the report. A DDO code is used in government payroll administration to identify the officer or unit responsible for drawing and disbursing salaries.
The department has separately instructed authorities to update provident fund records for employees of aided schools. The opening balance as of April 1, 2021, is to be entered into the Shalarth system before November 15. The instruction is intended to bring pending provident fund information into the payroll database.
Officials have also been asked to complete all pending actions urgently so that technical difficulties do not affect the payment of November 2026 salaries, which are scheduled to be disbursed in December. Authorities have been told to ensure that salaries of regular employees are paid on the first day of every month. The directions place responsibility on education and pay administration units to reconcile staffing approvals, employee records, payroll identities and pending service decisions.
