New pay-scales a `retrograde step’

PATIALA, April 27: The Punjab Government College Teachers' Association has rejected the new pay-scales announced by the Central government, ...

PATIALA, April 27: The Punjab Government College Teachers’ Association has rejected the new pay-scales announced by the Central government, describing them as a retrograde step.

According to Dr P. S. Bhatti, president of the association, said the new pay-scales were merely a conversion of the old pay-scales by merging DA into the basic pay. “These pay-scales are Rs 2,000 less at every stage than the scales recommended by the UGC. It had recommended the starting scale of Rs 10,000 For lecturers, Rs 12,000 for senior-scale lecturers, Rs 14,300 for selection grade lecturers/ readers and Rs 18,400 for principals,” Bhatti said.

The president of the association said that further division of readers and professors would create problems for the teaching community. The government college lecturers retire as lecturers, as only one per cent of them get a chance to become principals and that too, for one or two months, he rued.

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The teachers’ body leader regretted that no promotion had taken place in the past one-year due to some administrative reasons, although many colleges were without principals. “Due to the imposition of Phd condition for readers, a college lecturer cannot get even one promotion throughout his carreer,” Bhatti alleged. He further said that the new grades announced by the Central government had no provision of step-up increments. Meanwhile, in another development, the principals’ association of government colleges, Punjab, has rejected the new pay-scales announced by the Central government.

Its president S. S. Chohan said that principals were placed at par with the university professors when the grades were revised with effect from January 1, 1973 and January 1, 1986, but now this parity in the grade had been denied to them.