Teachers in professional colleges are bearing the brunt of the delay in release of state government funds. With the state failing to pay the grants to colleges on time, salaries of the teaching and non-teaching staff in the colleges are being delayed. According to the data compiled by directorate of technical education (DTE), the staff in 10 out of 80 professional colleges— pharmacy, engineering and management education institutes — in the city and suburbs have not received salaries for several months.
The data, compiled in January, indicates that eight of these colleges are managed by Saraswati Education Society. While it appears that the institutes have not paid the dues to the teaching faculty since July last year, Rajesh Tasgaonkar, a trustee of the Society, informed that they have recently paid the salaries pending from December to February.
Explaining the reason for the delay, Tasgaonkar said, “We have not received the reimbursements for the freeships given to scheduled caste students. Besides, our colleges are located in rural areas, and as a result, many open category students pay the fees in instalments.” He assured that the teachers will receive the pending wages, when they will be allotted funds by the state in April.
The faculty members however blamed the management for the delay. “The management has been investing money in various other business ventures instead of paying our salaries. They, even loaned money from the bank to pay the dues, but it seems that they have kept the money to themselves. The teachers have been asked to pay the interest on the loan,” said a teacher from one of the Saraswati Society colleges. Tasgaonkar, however, denied the allegations. “We invested our own money in the business ventures. Besides, we are paying the interests ourselves. Only some faculty members have issues,” he said. Meanwhile, the staff of GV Acharya College in Karjat have also complained about irregular salaries. In a letter to the vice-chancellor of the University of Mumbai (MU), they have alleged that the college has not paid them wages between December 2014 and May 2015.
{{/usCountry}}The faculty members however blamed the management for the delay. “The management has been investing money in various other business ventures instead of paying our salaries. They, even loaned money from the bank to pay the dues, but it seems that they have kept the money to themselves. The teachers have been asked to pay the interest on the loan,” said a teacher from one of the Saraswati Society colleges. Tasgaonkar, however, denied the allegations. “We invested our own money in the business ventures. Besides, we are paying the interests ourselves. Only some faculty members have issues,” he said. Meanwhile, the staff of GV Acharya College in Karjat have also complained about irregular salaries. In a letter to the vice-chancellor of the University of Mumbai (MU), they have alleged that the college has not paid them wages between December 2014 and May 2015.
{{/usCountry}}The activists have pinned the blame for delay in salaries on the institutes. “Instead of paying salaries the colleges spend money in building educational empires,” said Vaibhav Narawade, secretary, Citizen Forum for Sanctity in Education.
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