Ahead of the General Elections, the BJD Government on Thursday announced a series of decisions for the benefit of the non-Government college teachers and employees, the formal notification of which was issued by the Higher Education Department on Thursday.
According to the notification, it has been decided to give promotion to 3,984 lecturers on State scale with all benefits as applicable to their counterparts in the Government colleges.
Besides, the Government has decided to extend Block Grant at 40 per cent of their applicable salary to eligible new colleges established on or before June 1, 2008 and enhance quantum of grant with increment to the teaching and non-teaching staff of the 488 and 662 category of non-Government aided colleges.
The Government has also decided to cover the left out employees of the 488 and 662 category of colleges under grant, said Higher Education Minister Badrinarayan Patra adding that all the benefits to be given under the new decision would be effective from January 1 , 2014.
He said that the decisions were taken considering the long standing demands of the teaching and non-teaching staff of the non-Government colleges. As per the notification, now the promotional benefits will be extended to 3,984 State scale junior lectures. They had been deprived of the benefit for a long time.
Now, the eligible lecturers would be promoted to State scale (Group A) and Reader posts at a pay brand of basic Rs 15,000 - Rs 39,100 with Grade Pay of Rs 6,600. Earlier, the junior lecturers were getting a pay brand of basic Rs 9,300- Rs 34,800 with Grade Pay of Rs 4,600 besides usual DA and increment.
As per the new arrangement, the block grant lecturers in the 662 and 488 colleges would get a fixed pay of Rs 14,317 and Rs 16,114 respectively per month. Earlier, these categories of lecturers were getting Rs 5,733 and Rs 11,139 per month respectively. The Government has decided to pay these lecturers only basic pay and grade pay without DA.
However, the difference in their salary is attributed to the 662 category lecturers getting only one increment while the 488 group getting five increments I addition to their basic of Rs 9,300 and grade pay of Rs 4,600.
The notification also said that the employees of existing 488 and 622 category colleges who joined on or before 1 June of 2008 in respect of educationally advanced districts and on or before
June 1, 2010 in respect of educationally backward districts and women’s colleges would get 40 percent Block Brant.They will get 60 per cent after completion of 3 years, 75 percent after 6 years and 100 per cent of Block Grant after 8 years of continuous service.
However, although the Government claims it provided Grant-In-Aid (GIA) instead of Block Grant to the lecturers in the 662 and 488 categories of colleges getting grant since 2009, the employees who are going to get the benefit were not happy.
They said the benefits found under the GIA system are absent in the new salary structures.They described the new pay structure as a mere enhancement of their scale under Block Grant. So it is a sort of Block Grant as the salary to be paid henceforth too is fixed.
Describing the new arrangement as old wine in new bottle, they demanded full GIA with complete benefits and service conditions which are unfortunatelymissing in the new arrangement.
