PU Board of Finance meeting today

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 12

Panjab University (PU) would claim the amount for implementing the 7th pay commission recommendations for teachers and non-teaching staff, and pending arrears from Punjab in the emergent Board of Finance (BoF) meeting slated for tomorrow.

As per the notice for the meeting, the PU had been informing Punjab’s DPI colleges over grants vide letters dated August 9, October 27, and November 24 of the last year.

As per the letter dated August 9, 2017, “The contribution of the Punjab Government stood fixed for the past six years to the level of Rs 20 crore only. The Punjab Government has enhanced its contribution to Rs 27 crore in the current financial year i.e. 2017-18.”

It added, “Keeping in view the default annual increase in the annual expenditure on salaries and after-service benefits, it was expected from the Punjab Government that a reasonable annual enhancement ought to have been allowed to the PU at least from the year 2013-14 onwards, the year when Panjab University started receiving its annual grant from a non-plan budget head of the UGC via the MHRD.”

The contribution of the Punjab Government has been worked out by applying a uniform growth rate of 12.5 per cent, taking the budget allocation of 2013-14 as a base value.

Also, in an affidavit before the Punjab and Haryana High Court dated February 7, 2018, the PU said as per the letter dated June 17, 2017, from the MHRD, the previous uncovered deficit of the varsity should be met by the Punjab Government and internal income of the varsity. Out of the total uncovered deficit of Rs 46.31 crore, the varsity had already met Rs 28 crore, but Rs 17.94 crore is still pending.

For 2017-18, the Punjab Government is paying Rs 27 crore and for 2018-19, the PU is seeking Rs 28.62 crore; with a rise of six per cent.

The letter dated November 24, 2017, informed the Punjab Government that the tentative liability for the implementation of the 7th pay commission recommendations for teachers in UGC and Central pay-sale is Rs 100.12 crore with Rs 66.61 crore for arrears upto March 31, 2018, and Rs 33.51 crore from April 1, 2018, to March 31, 2019. With respect to non-teaching staff and pensioners, the varsity follows pay scale and pension rules of the Punjab Government. The tentative liability of non-teaching staff will be Rs 21.73 crore per annum. But Punjab is yet to notify the 7th pay commission recommendations.

The Punjab Government has earlier asked PU VC Prof Arun Kumar Grover to conduct the BoF meeting as soon as possible. It opposed the proposal of the Haryana Government for affiliation of some of its colleges to the PU, but said the government was open to increasing the grant-in-aid for the PU through a mutually consultative process.

It submitted before the court on February 7, “The Haryana Government cannot take advantage of the ongoing proceedings in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The transitory financial resources problem and its resolution by the statutory stakeholders do not permit Haryana Government to turn back the clock.”