Delay in teachers’ salary revision: Council chair seeks action against officials

Many teachers of the Magadh and BN Mandal universities were denied revision of their salary as per the 7th pay commission despite the directions of the high court and the Supreme Court.

PATNA: Taking serious exception to the inordinate delay in varsity teachers’ salary revision, working chairman of the Bihar legislative council Awadhesh Narayan Singh on Saturday asked education minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary to identify the officers responsible for the mess and to take them to the task.

The working chairman of the Bihar legislative council, Awadhesh Narayan Singh said the officers shall not consider themselves to be the ‘masters’. (File)

The chair turned upset when the minister, responding to a starred question of Sanjay Kumar Singh of the Communist Party of India (CPI), admitted that the issue relating revision of salary and payment of arrears to many teachers of different universities was unnecessarily delayed.

“The officers shall not consider themselves to be the masters. Review the cause of the delay at the department level, identify the officers responsible for the delay and make public the kind of punitive action taken against them. Nothing positive will come out if the officers have to be relied upon for everything,” chairman Singh told the minister.

Through the question, Sanjay Kumar Singh of the CPI alleged that many teachers of the Magadh and BN Mandal universities were denied revision of their salary as per the 7th pay commission despite the directions of the high court and the Supreme Court. He claimed that the universities revised the scales in accordance with the provision of the latest pay panel and sent the letters to the education department for verification in 2018. “But the department is sitting over the files to the discomfiture of the eligible teachers, whose arrears of salary are lying with the university for payment,” said the CPI leader.

Sanjiv Kumar Singh, a JD(U) member, questioned the delay in the name of verification of the pay structure of teachers to upgrade the salary.

The education minister, however, sought to defend the departmental officers saying that the delay in offering benefits to the teachers and students was mostly caused at the varsity levels, for which he had also approached the chancellor’s office. The CPI member, however, countered the minister’s argument, claiming that Magadh University had submitted its report regarding revision of teachers’ salary way back in 2018 and it has been pending at the department level since then.

The issue of delay in doling out financial benefit to the teachers of the recently announced hike in their salary also rocked the legislative council during the question hour, when Sunil Kumar Singh of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) expressed his apprehension that the money earmarked for payment of arrears of salary to primary and secondary teachers could be surrendered due to the procedural wrangle.

Raising the issue, Sunil Kumar Singh claimed that about 3.52 lakh teachers could be denied the benefits of 15% salary hike this fiscal as the district programme officers (DPOs) could not fix the upgraded scales of teachers in almost all the districts, even as the finance department has ordered curb on all sort of transaction due to closure of the finance this fiscal.

Education minister VK Chaudhary claimed that data of nearly 3 lakh teachers has been electronically verified and uploaded for digital payments.

The chairman, however, was not contented with the minister’s reply and wondered as how long should the teachers continue to live on the mercy of officials for their genuine payment. He also asked the minister to see that the issues are resolved before the end of this fiscal year and teachers are paid.