Thiruvananthapuram: The lone Sainik school in the state situated at Kazhakootam here is on the verge of shutdown. Exasperated by the state government’s denial of salary and other benefits including pension, the employees staged a flash strike here on Tuesday.

Notably, only 70 per cent of salary for December was distributed to the employees. The employees decided to go on a strike after they didn't receive their salary on January 31.

One of the major issues is that the state government and the union government have not signed the memorandum of understanding(MoU) regarding the operation of the school. The respective file over the matter was approved by the Chief Minister’s Office, way back in January 2021. The then finance minister while announcing the budget remarked about the approval. However, the MoU has been not yet signed.

At present, the file is with the revenue department. Also, the state government has not yet received the respective allocations from the Union government for meeting the salary and allied benefits to the officials.