Teachers of 12 DU colleges finally get paid; no sign yet of arrears, allowances

By Ganesh Bhatt

New Delhi, Sep 18 (SocialNews.XYZ) After the teachers in a dozen colleges affiliated to the Delhi University (DU) held agitation over the non-payment of their salaries, the state government has finally disbursed their salaries, but without arrears.

The medical and LTC bills of these teachers and the pension of retired teachers from these 12 DU colleges have not been paid till now.

A DU teachers' group have blamed the Delhi government for not paying them arrears and allowances. At the same time, another group of teachers has also asked the Delhi government to release more grants immediately, adding that efforts were being made to appoint people from a particular political ideology by pressuring these colleges funded by the Delhi government.

Ajay Kumar, President of Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA), told IANS that the teachers in Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, Lakshmibai College and Shyam Lal College are being harassed unnecessarily by the Delhi government's Governing Body President.

Simultaneously, there has been pressure on the principals of these 12 DU colleges to pay salaries to the teachers from the money generated through student welfare fund. The Principals' Association has repeatedly written to the Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh about unnecessary interference by the Delhi government, Kumar said.

The Delhi government is running away from its responsibility by failing to pay the salary of the teachers of these 12 DU colleges. Now the DUTA has demanded from the Delhi University Vice-Chancellor that the governing body of the Delhi government should be dismissed, the DUTA President added.

Hansraj Suman, President of Delhi Teachers' Association (DTA) (which is the teacher organisation of Aam Aadmi Party), says that attempts are being made to create undue pressure on the Delhi government and protests are deliberately repeatedly held at the Chief Minister's residence.

He said that appointments are to be made on the posts of principal in more than 20 colleges run by the Delhi government where individuals supporting the political ideology of DUTA and the Central government want to appoint teachers following the same political ideology as them.

Suman said that in Vivekananda College, Bharati College and other DU colleges, teachers following the political ideology of the Central government were not made principals so the Central government deemed these posts 'not suitable', even though Delhi government's governing body is functional in these colleges.

As many as 28 DU colleges are funded by the Delhi government. Of these, 12 are fully-funded colleges, which are given 100 per cent grant money by the Delhi government. In addition, 16 colleges are partially funded by the state government. In all these 28 colleges, the Chairman of the governing body of the Delhi government runs them.

According to the DTA President, despite the Chairman of governing body, the Delhi government is not able to get the principal appointed in the 12 colleges run by them because the principal's selection committee is infiltrated by people of a particular political ideology due to which these Delhi government-run colleges are not able to appoint principals.

The DTA has also demanded from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to immediately release the grants of 12 fully-funded colleges affiliated to the Delhi government.

DTA says that due to non-release of grants, teachers of many colleges have not received promotion arrears since the last two months. Along with this, permanent and ad-hoc teachers and staff in these colleges are facing severe financial crisis due to non-payment of salaries.

The DTA also said that the grant has now been released by the Delhi government due to which the salary has now been paid to the teachers. Along with this, the DTA President also admitted that the full grant has not been released yet.

The DTA has said that several months have passed since the teachers were given promotion, but they have not been paid arrears till date. Similarly, the medical bills of the teachers have also not been cleared. The teachers have told the DTA that LTC bills and pensions of retired teachers have not been paid.

The DUTA says that the crisis regarding release of grants and salaries is deepening in the 12 colleges funded by the Delhi government. Teachers and staff are facing problems due to inadequate and irregular grants released by the Delhi government. The Delhi government is continuously ignoring and inhumanely treating the colleges funded by it.

The DUTA President said that the salaries of teachers and other employees of colleges funded cent per cent by the Delhi government, 7th pay commission arrears, promotion arrears, medical bills are still pending. In many colleges, even the salary of the last two to three months has not been paid.

DUTA Secretary Surendra Singh informed that the career of these teachers is hanging on a sticky wicket due to non-approval of posts of ad-hoc teachers working in these 12 colleges. The Delhi government has made the Delhi College of Arts & Commerce redundant. This college has been merged with the Department of Fine Arts of the Ambedkar University, which has further aggravated problems.

Source: IANS