Ludhiana | Guest faculty of SCD College receives 4 months’ pending salaries

According to the officials, the guest teachers of SCD College, Ludhiana, were timely paid half of their salaries by the college till April, but the rest, supposed to be paid by the state finance department was pending

In a major relief to around 60 guest faculty members of SCD Government College, who had not received their salaries for the past six months, the state treasury office has finally paid their pending dues till April.

A senior officer in the education department said salaries of guest faculty of SCD College, Ludhiana, would have been deposited a day before, but were further delayed due to the government holiday on Tuesday (HT FILE)

HT had highlighted the same issue on Tuesday.

According to the officials, the guest teachers were timely paid half of their salaries by the college till April, but the rest, supposed to be paid by the state finance department was pending.

Notably, the state government pays complete salaries for May and June, which are still pending.

“We finally received our dues till April on Wednesday afternoon. The state government pays the money for May and June due to summer vacations every year. We are yet to receive the salary for the month of May. I am hopeful of getting it at the end of this month along with June salary,” a guest teacher said.

However, guest faculties deputed at other government colleges in Ludhiana received timely salaries by the government.

Large number of aggrieved teachers had to borrow money from their colleagues or even from their students to pay their monthly expenses.

“It is a huge relief for all of us. It was embarrassing for us to borrow money from our colleagues or students to pay our electricity bills or finance other household expenses. It would be great if the government would soon release our salary for May too,” another guest teacher said.

However, director public instructions, colleges, Punjab, Rajiv Kumar Gupta, had cleared the salary bills of these teachers in the beginning of this month, but according to the officials, the delay was from the treasury department of the state due to some technical glitch.

A senior officer in the education department said salaries would have been deposited a day before, but were further delayed due to the government holiday on Tuesday.

“The money was transferred to the account of the college on Monday, but the salaries couldn’t be further deposited to the accounts of the guest faculty due to the holiday,”a senior officer said.