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Punjabi University struggles to arrange funds to pay salaries
With the financial crisis deepening, the Punjabi University, Patiala, is toiling hard every month to meet its committed expenditure, which includes salaries and
With the financial crisis deepening, the Punjabi University, Patiala, is toiling hard every month to meet its committed expenditure, which includes salaries and pension. Even this month, the varsity has failed to release salaries of its teaching and non-teaching staff.
A senior professor said that the financial condition of the varsity is at an all time low. The university is forced to make stopgap arrangements every month in order to arrange finances for meeting its committed expenditures.
“It is the duty of the university authorities to pay salaries and pensions to the employees by first of every month, but the dues are being delayed every month now,” the professor added.
Another member of the teaching staff said that the teachers’ body has to sit on protests every month to get their salaries released. “This trend is not suitable for the academic atmosphere of the varsity. Teachers should not be forced to protest for their genuine rights,” he said.
The total monthly salary budget of the university is pegged at ₹33 crore. In its budgetary allocation for 2019-2020, the university had proposed a budget of ₹717 crore, against an income of ₹344 crore. The deficit was pegged at ₹373 crore.
Moreover, at present, the university has an overdraft of ₹132 crore, which is expected to touch ₹150 crore by the end of the year.
Registrar Prof Manjit Singh Nijjar said that salaries will be disbursed by Monday. The university has made arrangements to meet its committed expenses, he said.
“The salaries were delayed due to confusion over secretariat pay allowance of the non-teaching staff. We have cleared all glitches and resolved the issue following which, the provisions are being made to release the salaries,” Prof Nijjar said.
108 WILL CONTINUE TO GET SECRETARIAT PAY ALLOWANCE
Meanwhile, the university has decided that 108 non-teaching staff at the university will continue to get the secretariat pay allowance.
Prof Nijjar said that following a petition, the Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) had given relief to only 108 staffers, who were named in the petition and gave interim on the varsity orders.
“Other members of the non-teaching staff are also demanding relief but we have decided that only those who had approached court will get relief as per the HC orders,” he said
On January 22, the varsity had decided to adopt the orders of the Punjab government related to withdrawing secretariat allowance of its employees.
With this decision, the non-teaching staff of the university, from deputy registrars to drivers, are facing a salary cut, ranging from ₹600 to ₹7,000.
In December, the state government had directed all state varsities to withdraw the said allowance. The Panjab University, Chandigarh, had also decided not to pay secretariat allowance to its employees.
Secretariat allowance is a special allowance given to the clerical staff of the civil secretariat of Punjab government, which is also being paid to the non-teaching employees of the state universities since 1970s.
