JOIN USNew UGC scale: Lecturers may have to wait for long
The Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry and the UGC had announced the revised pay scale for lecturers and professors in December, 2008. However, the State has delayed implementing the revised pay scale.
Although the proposal for the implementation was part of the agenda to be discussed in the Cabinet meetings, it has been stubbed and delayed for eight months.
The Finance Department and the Education Department had given the concurrence for implementation of the revised pay, but it failed to find its place in the Cabinet meetings for discussion and approval.
As per the order, the lecturers will avail the benefits of the revised pay with effect from January 2006, till March 2010. In the first five years, the revised pay will be implemented with the Centre paying 80 per cent of the arrears and the State remitting remaining 20 per cent. For the next five years, the State will have to implement the revised pay scale completely by providing the benefits.
State’s stake
As per the notification on the revised pay, the UGC has already sanctioned Rs 850 crore for the implementation. The State has to remit Rs 150 crore for the same.
On the revised pay scale, Dr B G Bhaskara of Federation of University and College Teachers Association in Karnataka (FUCTAK) said, “Tamil Nadu, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and almost all the states have implemented the revised UGC pay scale. In some states, like West Bengal, interim relief comprising the arrears for the lecturers, were dispersed in February 2009, within two months of the UGC announcement”.
However, it is not the same case with the Karnataka. The reason for not taking up the proposal despite it being the part of the agenda to be discussed is not clear.
Meanwhile, Higher Education Minister Aravind Limbavali on Thursday said in Mangalore that the issue of the revised UGC pay scale will be discussed in the next Cabinet meeting shortly.
DH News Service