JOIN USThe long wait of college and university teachers for their arrears under sixth pay revision may soon be over, if the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has its way.
Seeking to end the impasse over clearance of the arrears, the Ministry has decided that it will lift the condition of enhancing the retirement age of teachers to 65 years and release its share in the total expenditure to states.
“A proposal seeking de-linking of the release of assistance to the state governments from the retirement age has been prepared. It will soon be placed before Cabinet for approval,” sources in the HRD Ministry told Deccan Herald.
Last year, Union Cabinet had referred the matter to a committee of secretaries. The panel, after examining the issue, has recommended dropping the condition of fixing the retirement age of teachers at 65.
If the proposal gets Cabinet’s nod, it will benefit about five lakh teachers of nearly 250 state universities and 25,000 colleges, who have been waiting for their arrears for last four years due to the tussle between Centre and their espective state governments over the fixing of the retirement age.
As a sequel to sixth pay commission recommendations, the Centre had announced a revised pay scale and service conditions for teachers in university and colleges in 2008 following a recommendation by the university grants commission (UGC).
While announcing the pay revision, it assured that it would provide financial assistance to the extent of 80 per cent of the additional expenditure for the first four years to the states opting for giving the revised pay scale. The pay revision had to be implemented with retrospective effect from January 2006.