The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Teachers not paid for nine months

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Wednesday, Jul 09, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Teachers not paid for nine months

Chitra V. Ramani

Legal problems will be solved soon: Minister

Bangalore: More than 300 teaching and non-teaching staff of 15 aided colleges in Karnataka have not received salary for the past nine months as the Department of Higher Education has refused to consider the new accreditation system of the National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC). The department stopped releasing the salary grants to these colleges, which obtained “C” grade from NAAC under the new system.

Speaking to The Hindu on condition of anonymity, a former principal of one of the colleges said that the department stopped the salary grant from November 2007. “Earlier, NAAC had a nine-point scale, which was later changed to letter grade system. However, the department did not take that into consideration and issued two Government Orders in October stopping the grant,” he said.

“The department wrote to NAAC to ascertain whether salary grants could be released to colleges with Grade C on January 21, 2008. NAAC wrote back saying that the funds could be released, as the grade meant that the colleges were under the ‘satisfactory’ category. NAAC maintained that the colleges had to be encouraged to improve with the sanction of the grants. However, the department took no note of the reply,” he said.

Policy

A lecturer from another college said that of the 349 government colleges, 257 did not even seek NAAC accreditation, and 50 government colleges have received “C” grade. However, the salaries of government college teachers have not been withheld. “Why should teachers of aided colleges suffer? The Government should have a uniform policy for all colleges,” he said.

A.M. Narahari, president of Federation of University and College Teachers Association in Karnataka, said that the Karnataka High Court, in its judgment on April 17, had directed the department to release the salary grants within three months. “NAAC grading should not be linked to the salary. Even the University Grants Commission has, on an earlier occasion, said that grants should not be linked with accreditation,” he said.

The three-month deadline given to the department to release grants and arrears will end on July 17. However, it is learnt that the department has decided to seek legal opinion and has sent the case to the Law Department.

Prof. Narahari said that officials of the department had made it clear that the salary grant would be released only after it obtained the legal opinion. “The department is also considering the option of going in for an appeal against the High Court judgment. The teachers are in a bad state,” he added.

When contacted, Minister for Higher Education Arvind Limbavali said, “I am aware of the issue and there are certain legal hurdles. The problem will be sorted out in about three days.”

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