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Teachers on 2-day strike over salary delay at 12 Delhi University colleges
Teachers from the Delhi University (DU) boycotted online classes on Tuesday to protest against the delay in payment of salaries at 12 Delhi government colleges
Teachers from the Delhi University (DU) boycotted online classes on Tuesday to protest against the delay in payment of salaries at 12 Delhi government colleges. The call for the two-day strike, that will continue till Wednesday, was given by Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) to protest against delayed salary disbursal and the government for not releasing funds.
The issues of delayed payments and not releasing funds on time have been a point of contention among the colleges and Delhi government for a while now. Earlier in March this year, the Delhi government announced that it would release ₹28.24 crores for the salaries of the staff of the fully funded DU colleges. Despite the announcement, insufficient grants were released, that delayed disbursement of salaries and other dues, said the DUTA.
President of DUTA Rajib Ray said though some principals had called to inform that funds had been sanctioned, this was a stop gap measure that would cover up expenses for a month or two at the most. “The budget sanctioned for colleges should have been increased, but it has not been done. Besides salaries of teachers, colleges have expenses to incur on infrastructure also,” said Ray.
In a statement, DUTA said while grant-in-aid had been released earlier for some colleges, the strike will continue. “The second instalment of grants-in-aid released today (Tuesday) is highly insufficient. DUTA finds it is extremely unfortunate that it takes protests to get salaries. All dues of employees remain still pending including against medical bills and salaries of ad-hoc teachers. The grants released are insufficient for the implementation of recent promotions in terms of salary enhancement,” the statement said.
Besides boycotting classes, teachers also held an online protest during which they shared their grievances and the challenges they are facing due to delay in payment of salaries. “Teachers shared how employees are forced to take loans because of these delays and are living in constant stress. They demanded that the 12 colleges should be taken over by the UGC to end this repeated crisis,” said DUTA.
Hem Chand Jain, principal of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, said he did not receive any sanction letter or funds, due to which college teachers were going through trying times. The college last paid 80% salaries to teaching staff in May, whereas ad-hoc and contractual teachers were given no remuneration.
“Colleges are in a bad shape. The livelihoods of around 2,500 families are at stake. People are unable to pay their EMIs. The college has not been able to pay the electricity and water bill. We are not in a position to pay for expenses incurred under different heads,” said Jain.
The Delhi government did not respond to calls and messages.
