Honorarium of PU guest faculty hiked

Chandigarh, April 10

Finally, the Board of Finance (BoF), Panjab University (PU), has approved the enhancement of honorarium to guest faculty from January 18 this year.

In December, the PU Syndicate had approved the adoption of the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) 2019 guidelines to enhance honorarium for guest faculty. As per the UGC letter, the honorarium for the guest faculty has been increased from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 per lecture and the monthly ceiling from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000. The decision was approved by the then Vice-Chancellor on December 19.

The members of the BoF approved the allowance of Rs 1,000 per month to the physically challenged employees of the university with effect from January 1.

The pay of directly recruited Professors (prior to January 1, 2006) as per the UGC Regulations is to be fixed at a stage not below Rs 43,000 in the Pay Band IV of Rs 37,400-67,000 (Academic Grade Pay 10,000) in terms of Clause 4.0 of the schedule relating to main clause 6.8.0 of the UGC Regulations, 2010.

New post of Associate Dean, Student Welfare

The BoF also approved creating the position of Associate Dean, Student Welfare, to be filled by giving additional charge to a teacher (as in case of the DSW) with an honorarium of Rs 3,000 per month. The board members okayed the enhancement of GST rate on construction works from 12% to 18%.

The honorarium rate for selection/screening-cum-evaluation (CAS) of Chancellor/Vice-Chancellor’s nominee is up from Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000 per day.

The Board also approved the recommendations of the Vice-Chancellor to enhance the fixed remuneration of Part-time Assistant Professors (in subjects of law) of the Department of Laws, University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University; regional centre, Muktsar; SS Giri, regional centre in Hoshiarpur; and regional centre in Ludhiana from Rs 22,800 (fixed) to Rs 43,275 (fixed) for a workload of 12 hours a week, effective from academic session 2023-24.

In February, the faculty of the university received their January salaries (paid in February) as per the revised UGC scales (7th Pay Commission). Last December, the Punjab Government’s notification for the implementation of revised UGC scales was adopted by the PU Syndicate. Around 630 faculty members of the university were benefited from the revision of pay scales.

The state government had approved the implementation of the new UGC scales in October. However, the revision came into effect from January.