Teachers exploited at three city colleges

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 20

A Panjab University (PU) panel has accused three Ludhiana colleges of exploiting teachers and has uncovered mass irregularities. The colleges are SDP College, Devki Devi Jain Memorial College for Women and Atam Valabh Jain College.

The reports of the panel will come up for discussion during a Syndicate meeting slated for January 27.

SDP College Ludhiana

A PU panel comprising Dr Raj Kumar Mahajan, Harpreet Singh Dua and Dr IPS Sidhu visited the college on September 14, 2018, and concluded that “no rule of PU/DPI (Colleges)/UGC is being followed in the College”.

The report said the “salary of the staff has not been paid for the past six months”. The “casual leaves are not granted to the staff” and “annual increment has not been granted to the staff for the past three sessions, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18”.

The report said the management did not pass on dearness allowance (DA) arrears received from the Punjab Government for 2015-18 to its grant-in-aid staff. “The provident fund has not been paid on total salary as per the PU norms,” said the report.

Though the college charges retiree benefits from students, the authorities did not pass on leave encashment to two retired teachers and one non-teaching staff.

50% salary taken back from commerce teachers 

“Some teachers appointed in 2011 and 2013 in the commerce department are paid a salary of Rs 45,521 each”. “But 50 % of the salary is taken by a person deputed by the Chairman. To avoid any kind of proof being leaked, cellphones are not allowed in the office when the money is taken back,” said the report.

The college has not been giving any increment to these teachers since their confirmation. The service books of these teachers are not being maintained.

“No maternity leave was granted to any of these teachers. They were forced to take leave without pay for the said period. No medical, earned or casual leave is granted to these teachers.”

Teachers, who are appointed on basic pay of Rs 21,600, have been asked to deposit Rs 3,000. “No appointment letter has been given to these teachers. No medical, earned or casual leave is given to any of these teachers. If they avail leave, they are marked absent and salary is deducted for that day.”

“Teachers appointed in 2017 have not been given any appointment letters although letters of extension of probation, after one year of service, have been given to them.”

“The resignations were taken in writing at the time of the appointment of the non-teaching staff members.”

Also, no promotion has been granted to any of the non-teaching staff.

Atam Valabh Jain College

The same panel, which this time also included Senator Prabhjit Singh, has found that Atam Valabh Jain College is not paying full DA to the teaching staff during their visit on October 13, 2018.

“100% DA is being paid as opposed to the 132% prescribed by the DPI.”

The report said: “House rent allowance (HRA) at 15% as opposed to 20% prescribed by the Punjab Government was being paid to the staff, when the college commenced its operation. Later, it was arbitrarily withdrawn in 2013, the year in which HR Saini joined the college as coordinator.”

The report opposed to Saini as coordinator as no such provision is there in PU Calendar while principal doesn’t have any say in academic and administrative matters.

The college had not been duly deducting provident fund (PF) since its inception, but it started the practice from July, 2018, where PF is deducted at 10% of the basic.

“Some teachers were not allowed to attend refresher or orientation courses because of which they missed out on their due promotions. The teachers were refused any duty leave to attend these courses and their salary for this period was also deducted.”

The report added that the college management “ordered the staff to deposit back 50% of their salary via the office superintendent” and from this year only (2018), this “mala fide practice” was discontinued.

Devki Devi Jain Memorial College for Women 

The same panel visited the college on September 20, 2018. “The Unaided Teachers are not given any maternity leave and are thus forced to take a paid leave for the purpose. The Management (of the college) did not allow the teachers working on unaided management posts to attend orientation or refresher courses thereby depriving them of their right to promotion. Hence, the teachers working in the same college for the past 25 years are on 6,000 AGP.” The faculty working on management unaided posts were not given any scale before 2012. Between the time period of 1994 and 2012, they were on consolidated salary. Since 2012, they are working on basic salary and have never been promoted on higher scale.

“The teachers working on unaided management posts are being given 15% HRA and medical allowance at Rs 350 as opposed to 20% HRA and medical allowance at Rs 500 directed by the DPI.” The unaided management staff is getting DA at 100% instead of 132% directed by the Punjab Government.

The PF of the unaided management staff is being deducted on basic salary which is against the PU and Punjab Government norms.

The non-teaching staff is not being paid as per the PU norms despite being working there for a number of years. Earned leaves are not being paid to the non-teaching staff.