The employees of 662 group of Block Grant colleges again showed their resentment against the apathy of the Government in fixing a reasonable pay package for them during their huge demonstration on the Mahatma Gandhi Marg, where about 5,000 lecturers and other staff members took part from across the State on Wednesday.
The Block Grant employees in the colleges assembled at the Master Canteen Square and took out a procession giving slogan for fair remuneration, regularisation of job and sorting out various anomalies in the Grant-In-Aid (GIA)—2008. They said that the Government had been adopting dilatory tactics to deprive about 10,000 staff members of their due payment and service benefits, even as they had been serving the interest of a big chunk of population in the rural and far-flung areas in higher education sector. They also lamented that the Government has left many anomalies in the GIA—2008 as a result of which not only are the staff members getting less payment but there are hundreds of others who have been denied grant once and for all as their posts are not covered under the grant policy. They demanded that the Government fix salary so that the already existing gap between the staff members of the 662 college and 488 colleges is bridged.
Talking to The Pioneer, Satabuddin Ahmed of the 662 colleges association said, “The Government must put our salary structure in a reasonable format. But so far, the Government is indecisive about it.”
He informed that a panel set up by the Government in February 22 last had recommended an upward revision of the Block Grant of both the 662 and 488 groups of colleges. However, already during the farming of the
GIA policies in 2008 and 2009 for both the group of colleges, a huge gap has been left in their salary structures. Consequently, a lecturer of a 662 category is getting Rs 5,733, almost half the salary of his counterpart in 488 category colleges at Rs 11,139. As if that was not enough, now, the panel has again decided to revise the Block Grant of the 662 category employees, with a lecturer’s pay fixed at Rs 13,900, while in respect of the 488 group a lecturer’s pay has been revised at Rs 17,095 with addition of seven increments. These increments have been denied to the former group. This is again widening the gap in the salary of the two groups of staff members, he said.
Narendra Paikray of the association said, “The 2008 GIA has a lot of loopholes, which need to be sorted out. The policy has skipped many posts as a result of which they are deprived of getting grant even after being in the job for last 20 years. That apart, the Government has not kept any service conditions, nor is it prepared to regularise the posts under the Block Grant. Hence, the association will hold an indefinite dharana till the demands are fulfilled.”
Among others, association president Golak Nayak, Gagan Beuria and Tapan Jena criticized the delays made by the Government in fixing suitable salary for the staff members and warned that the agitation would be intensified if the Government kept perpetuating the injustice.