The Hindu : National : Staff of State Resource Centre in a dilemma

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Wednesday, Aug 01, 2007
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Staff of State Resource Centre in a dilemma

Shankar Bennur

Neither Centre nor State considers them as its employees

Meeting of directors of SRCs begins in New Delhi today
State has not released grant for the past 18 years

MYSORE: Employees of the Mysore-based State Resource Centre (SRC), established in 1979 under the National Literacy Mission of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development and functioning under the dissolved Karnataka State Adult Education Council (KSAEC), are in a dilemma as they neither come under the Centre nor the State Government.

This has affected their morale and activities of the SRC, which was formed to extend academic and technical resource support to field functionaries, agencies and individuals in the field of adult education in the State

Despite several representations, the Centre and the State Government have not considered them as their employees though the SRC’s parent agency, KSAEC, has been merged with the Department of Mass Education.

According to the guidelines for the management, planning and operation of SRCs (24 SRCs are functioning in the country), the role of the Centre is strictly limited to providing the registered society financial assistance as per the approved financial pattern. The Centre is giving an annual grant of Rs. 60 lakh to SRCs coming under ‘A’ category and Rs. 40 lakh to SRCs in ‘B’ category for meeting requirements such as accommodation, vehicle, teaching, learning and training equipment.

Allocation

The allocation to SRCs set up between 1979 and 1992, including the one in Mysore, has been fixed at the ratio of 80:15:5 (80 per cent by the Centre, 15 per cent by the State Government and five per cent by KSAEC).

However, the State Government has not released its share of grant to the SRC for the past 18 years (it owes Rs. 72 lakh). The Centre’s grant, which was increased from Rs. 40 lakh to Rs. 60 lakh in March 2007 after the SRC here came under category ‘A’, is not sufficient. The employees here said that a lion’s share (Rs. 35 lakh) went towards their salaries though Rs. 48 lakh was required for the purpose, thus preventing them from taking up creative and innovative adult education programmes making use of the latest technologies.

Though Central pay-scale had been fixed for the employees of SRCs (formed before 1992) since April 1, 1985 and the benefits extended to Central employees were extended to them from 1988, no enhancement had been in their pay structure since the 10th Plan unlike other employees of the Centre, the employees told The Hindu.

Moreover, the SRC here is not getting orders for preparation, printing and sale of teaching material for adult education programmes of the State, thus reducing its revenue.

They said the SRC had made a formal representation to the State Government requesting it to increase allocation stating that it had become difficult for it to improve infrastructure and administration, take up creative and innovative programmes, and pay full salaries to its employees.

Meeting

Incidentally, the HRD Ministry has convened a meeting of the directors of SRCs in New Delhi on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss plans and programmes and roles and responsibilities of SRCs under the 11th Plan which is under preparation. It is not known whether issues such as protection of jobs raised by the Mysore SRC would come up for discussion, but the employees are optimistic that something “favourable” would emerge after the meeting.

“If a decision is taken to raise the Central grant from Rs. 60 lakh to Rs. 1.5 crore, most of the issues concerning the SRC would be addressed,” they said.

Uniform

The employees said the guidelines and rules should not be made uniform for all SRCs since the structure of SRCs established after 1979 was different from those formed after 1992.

They urged the Centre to consider those who had put in more than 20 years of service for the post of director instead of appointing a new person on contract. The appointment to the director’s post could be done on a rotation basis, thus giving opportunity to experienced staff, they said.

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