New delhi: The Indian Institutes of Technology, who have begun observing mass casual leave to protest Central government’s notification on their salary structures last week, have now sought complete revision of the order.
Rrepresentatives from the institutes, who met officials from the Ministry of Human Resource Development said, the revised salary structure was “unattractiveâ”. “The government notification lowers the salary structures even further than the revisions made by the Govardhan Mehta committee. The present emoluments as proposed are totally unattractive,” SS Murthy, chairman of IIT-Delhi Faculty Forum, said.
As per the revised annual increments approved by the Union Cabinet on 7 August for faculty at India’s apex technical education institutions, an assistant professor with PhD and regular service of three years at Annual Grade Pay (AGP) of Rs6,000 pm will get Rs7,000 pm, while the one at the AGP of Rs7,000 pm will get Rs8,000 pm. Similarly, assistant professor with a PhD and regular service of three years at the AGP of Rs8,000 pm will be designated as associate professor and get Rs9,000 pm. Associate professors at the IIITs and NITs with four years of regular service in the AGP of Rs9,000 and possessing a PhD degree will be appointed as professors, subject to other UGC conditions. No teacher other than those with a PhD shall be promoted, appointed or designated as professor.
The pay band for professors will be Rs37,400-67,000 with AGP of Rsl0,000 pm. IIT directors will get Rs80,000 a month and the professors with Rs55,000. “The earlier revision for IIT staff was in 1999. The present hike is not enough. With this pay, no one would like to teach at the IITs,” Murthy said.
The IITs have given the ministry time till September 4 to respond to their demand.