Govt-Delhi University tussle takes a toll on teachers’ pay

NEW DELHI: At least 12 Delhi University colleges have been unable to pay their teachers salaries for months due to a tussle between the university and the Delhi government. These colleges are fully funded by the government.
They have complained that without funds they haven’t been able to invest in students’ development programmes or start new courses. Worse: they say even paying power bills has become difficult, and if funds aren’t released soon, daily functioning of the colleges might just stop.

The tussle began over the selection process of governing bodies. After months of fighting, the university sent a list of 100 names to the government to choose from. The government then released funds for a month as an interim measure.

“But the funds released were not in full. We had to pay a number of our employees from our own student funds and couldn’t pay eight of our guest teachers last month,” said the principal of one such college on condition of anonymity.

He added, “The tussle between the government and the university has rendered our functioning problematic. We are unable to pay salaries to our teachers, karamcharis and even contractual employees. The situation is so bad that we can’t even pay for electricity.”

Another principal said, “We have had trouble with our class experiments as procurement of laboratory equipment has been tough. It is sad to see that a generation of students may leave the college without working in the laboratory for almost a year.”

Teachers wrote to LG Anil Baijal on Monday asking him to intervene.

Sources said the university had set up a committee to look into a new set of 100 names sent by the government. “This committee had decided that the names will be discussed in the Executive Council. But on February 10, we heard that a letter was sent by the administration objecting to the names without discussing with the EC,” said a source.

Despite repeated attempts, DU registrar did not respond to the issue.