UGC: Pay panel hike for 20%

UGC: Pay panel hike for 20%

New Delhi/ Hyderabad: The University Grants Commission (UGC) at a meeting held on February 22 reportedly cleared the recommendations of the 5-member committee that looked into the pay revision for university and college teachers across the country. The report is now with the Ministry of Human Resources Development for its approval. The ministry is yet to look into the report as the elections to several state assemblies are being held.

Sources from the UGC told The Hans India that the committee has reportedly recommended a 20 per cent hike in the basic pay of university and college teachers. As the existing Dearness Allowance will be merged in the basic pay, the hike is likely to be around 25 per cent to 30 per cent, including the HRA depending on the cadre and the seniority.

The pay commission has reportedly recommended a performance linked promotion system with an emphasis on research. There is no change in the retirement age. The present UGC panel has also recommended the retirement age of university and college teachers to be 65 years. But, several state governments have not implemented even the earlier panel’s recommendation to this effect. The state governments took advantage of the fact that higher education is in the concurrent list.

The proposed hike will be applicable to around 30, 000 teachers in Central universities and over four lakh in State varsities and colleges across the country .The last pay revision took place in 2006. The panel has reportedly suggested implementation of new pay scales with retrospective effect from January 2016 as the Central pay revision takes place every ten years while the State government pay scales are revised every five years.

Similar to the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for the Central government employees, the UGC panel has recommended that a teacher’s starting package to be revised by a multiplier of 2.72, applied to the basic salary and academic grade pay (AGP). The Seventh Pay Commission, whose report was accepted last year for civil servants and other central staff, had used the 2.72 multiplier.

The 5-member UGC panel was headed by Prof V S Chauhan.Speaking to The Hans India from Patna, Prof Arun Kumar, general secretary of All India Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisations (AIFUCTO), urged the UGC to make the report public immediately. The teachers of the universities and colleges across India are aghast that they have been deliberately kept in the dark about such a sensitive and important issue, the AIFUCTO leader said in a recent press release.

The UGC panel reportedly urged the Central government to meet the 100 per cent additional financial requirement for the implementation of new UGC scales for university and college teachers. However, though the last pay commission in 2006 made a similar recommendation, the Central government has given only 80 per cent and asked the State governments concerned to bear the remaining 20 per cent of additional financial requirements for implementing the new scales for teachers in State universities and colleges.

Speaking to The Hans India, Prof Battu Satyanarayana, chairman, Telangana Federation of University Teachers Associations, urged the UGC to release special grants to State universities to implement the revised UGC scales.