The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Wage raise eludes some medical teaching staff

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 26, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Wage raise eludes some medical teaching staff

Sahana Charan

Windfall for the faculty members in three new medical colleges started in Mandya, Belgaum and Hassan

Bangalore: A hefty pay packet with special allowances and much more. This is what the medical teaching staff of the seven government medical colleges in the State were promised.

But while the new pay scale was implemented in the medical colleges recently established by the Government in Mandya, Hassan and Belgaum, the teaching staff at the two premier institutions, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) and Mysore Medical College and Regional Institute (MMCRI) are yet to get a pay increase.

In May this year, the State Cabinet decided to revise the pay scales of the teaching staff in its seven medical colleges. The then Minister for Medical Education V.S. Acharya had announced that non-practising allowance would be paid to lecturers, assistant professors, associate professors and professors. Moreover, it was decided that 40 per cent of their basic pay will be given as academic allowance and special allowance to those who had postgraduate degree and diploma.

The salary increase was supposed to be applicable to teaching staff of medical colleges in Mandya, Hassan, Belgaum, Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), Bellary, Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Hubli, Bangalore Medical College and Mysore Medical College. Lecturers were supposed to be paid Rs. 8,000 as non-practising allowance a month, assistant professors Rs. 10,000, associate professors Rs. 15,000 and professors Rs. 17,000.

The increase was supposed to be implemented by June.

But all this seems like a faraway dream to doctors teaching at the BMC and MMC, who say that their pay scale has not changed for two years.

Waiting for two years

“Our pay scales remain the same and the proposed increase has not been implemented. In fact, in four months, our salaries have been delayed by five to even 15 days,” said a senior staff at the Bangalore Medical College.

After the two colleges were declared autonomous early this year, there was some confusion regarding its status as the office of the Accountant General, which disburses funds for salaries of senior teaching staff, had written to the Medical Education Department that it had not been informed about the autonomous status and had sought an explanation on this matter. According to a Professor at BMC, “Even though a government order has been issued about the autonomous status of the two colleges, there is no financial autonomy. Moreover, no meeting has been called to ascertain how funds could be raised if the institute becomes financially autonomous.”

If the proposed increase is implemented, the monthly salary of lecturers will go up from Rs. 20,360 to Rs. 32,875; assistant professors from Rs. 29,300 to Rs. 46,200; associate professors from Rs. 35,144 to Rs. 59,062 and professors from Rs. 35,144 to Rs. 66,976.

The Government would have incurred Rs. 44.08 crore financial burden a year on account of this increase.

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