Copycat bureaucrat has teachers on hot tin roof

Accountant General holds up faulty GO, seeks clarifications

The increase in salaries, based on the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission and ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 34,000 depending on seniority and position, has been stalled by the Accountant General who has found the Government Order notifying the increase faulty.

The beneficiaries of the pay revision - a total of 18,630 lecturers, including 6,740 faculty members in government colleges, 9,650 in private aided colleges and 2,360 in university colleges - have been hobbled by some lazy bureaucrat in the Department of Higher Education who seems to have done a ‘cut and paste’ job.

Instead of drafting the order, the department lifted chunks from a similar order of the Maharashtra Government, provoking the AG to hold up the hike, pointing out as many as 20 discrepancies in the order.

In a letter to the Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department, the office of the AG has sought clarifications on various points including exact definitions of a few terms and nomenclature, amount of arrears payable, promotions, the provisions of various appendices in the GO among others.

The long wait

Clearance by the AG is mandatory for the pay revision. The teachers should have got the enhanced salary in their February pay packet, but will have to wait till the Government clarifies the AG’s doubts on the order - GO no ED37UNE 2009 dated December 24, 2009,  which announced that the teachers will get the revised University Grants Commission pay-scales with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006. “There seem to be certain omissions in the Government Order which have to be reviewed and rectified. Certain clarifications are also required from the Government to implement the said benefits,” states the six-page letter from the AG’s office, dated February 2, 2010.

The AG office has sought to know what ‘other benefits’ in the GO implies and whether pay of employees completing three years as selection grade lecturers can be fixed in the associate professor grade. The applicability of the several appendices in the GO has been questioned and clarifications have been sought on the fitment tables fixing the revised pay scales.

Given the magnitude of the money involved, an order of that magnitude would demand due diligence. The teachers’ wage bill will shoot up from the present Rs 590 crore to Rs 815 crore per annum. The arrears from January 1, 2006, to March 31, 2010 alone add up to Rs 954 crore. The Centre will bear 80 per cent of the revised salary bill from January 1, 2006 to March 2010. Later on, the State government will have to foot the entire bill.