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PU teachers set to get revised scales as Punjab announces implementation of 7th pay panel
Long wait of teachers in universities and colleges, including teachers of PU, for revised UGC pay scales as per 7th pay commission is set to end as Punjab CM announced to implement the same in state
The long wait of teachers in universities and colleges, including teachers of Panjab University (PU), for the revised University Grants Commission (UGC) pay scales as per the 7th pay commission is set to end as Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday announced to implement the same in the state.
The move will result in the enhancement in the salaries of hundreds of PU teachers, who have been waiting for a pay hike since 2018 due to Punjab’s failure to implement the revised UGC scales. There are around 680 permanent faculty members at the university. Mann has announced that revised UGC scales will be implemented from October in the state.
As per the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, the assistant professors will get a basic pay of ₹57,700 which was ₹21,600 under the 6th Pay Commission. The basic pay of associate professors will also increase from ₹49,200 to ₹1,31,400 and it will be enhanced to ₹1,44,200 for professors from ₹53,000. Besides regular teachers, the pay revision will also benefit the guest faculty.
The president of Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA), Mritunjay Kumar said, “The announcement has brought relief to the teachers who have been waiting for this benefit from 2018. Now, we are hopeful that the notification will be issued immediately by the state government.”
While deliberating on the implementation of the revision of pay scales, PU’s board of finance (BoF), which has members from the Centre and the Punjab government, in November 2017 had decided that the university should implement the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission only after the same is notified and implemented by the Punjab government.
Later, the matter was also deliberated in a BoF meeting in 2019 as well, in which it was decided that after seeking the concurrence of the Punjab government, the university may write to the education ministry for the release of grant for implementing the seventh central pay commission. PU later wrote to the Punjab government to give its concurrence to implement the revised pay scales but no response was received by the university.
Earlier this year, the university proposed the implementation of the revised pay scales in its 2022-23 budget, approved by the university senate, as per the UGC Seventh Pay Commission for teachers.
Meanwhile, PU has already adopted the 6th Punjab pay commission for its non-teaching staff. However, they have not received the benefits, as the university has not received additional grants.
Jagwant Singh, general secretary, Punjab Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisations (PFUCTO), said the decision will pave the way for the implementation of the scales in PU as well as colleges of Chandigarh. “Unfortunately, despite the MHA notification issued in March, the UT administration did not implement the UGC pay scales. This hurdle too will get removed and soon university and college teachers in Punjab as well as Chandigarh will get revised UGC pay scales,” he said.
