It was a subdued New Year for the faculty members and other staffers of Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) here in the absence of salary. For want of necessary budget these employees have not received salaries for past two months. To add to their problems they are curtly told by the authorities that their wait for salaries could extend for two months more.
The college is yet to disburse salaries of November and December months to its faculty members. All faculty positions in the nascent GDMC barring the Principal and Medical Superintendent (MS) of the associated hospital are occupied by staff on contractual basis. The issue of disbursal of salary has remained a major issue for the college administration due to constant delay on part of government to provide budget. Interestingly, while the faculty members and other contractual workers had to grapple with the issue of salary regularly, the doctors of Provincial Medical Health Services (PMHS) working in the associated hospital get their salaries without any delay. This differential treatment causes resentment among the new faculty members. “We were told by the college administration in the month of December itself that there would a long wait for next salary as there is no budget left. The delay has smashed the financial planning of my house. I had to burrow money from my parents to pay the school fees of my children. The constant delays in the salary is causing disillusionment among the staff members and many have started searching for better options,’’ said one of staff members.
The Director Medical Education, Dr Ashutosh Sayana told The Pioneer that there are different heads under which the salary of regular workers, contractual workers and outsource workers is disbursed. He claimed that the budget is available with the department but the salary of contractual workers can not be disbursed from other heads. Dr Sayana further said that a process of re-appropriation is required to transfer the funds from one head to another. He said that the process is being initiated and the salary would be disbursed soon.
The college at present has 60 Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors. The GDMC has recruited Professors on a fixed monthly salary of ` 1.23 lakh, Associate Professor on ` 1.10 lakh and Assistant Professor on ` 95,000. Similarly the senior resident is employed on a salary of ` 65,000 while the pay of junior resident is ` 47,000. The salary obligation of the DMC per month is ` 1.71 crore.