Chandigarh, May 15 (IANS) Teaching and non-teaching staff in colleges across Punjab have gone without salaries for the past few months, a senior teachers' leader said Tuesday.
"A total of 1,036 aided colleges of Punjab have not received any salary grant from the state government for last 10 months. The last grant released was for the quarter ending Aug 31, 2011," Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers' Union (PCCTU) general secretary Jagwant Singh told IANS here.
He said that the salary grant that the Punjab government owed to colleges was nearly Rs.125 crore now. The colleges are affiliated to three universities -- Panjab University at Chandigarh, Guru Nanak Dev University at Amritsar and Punjabi University at Patiala.
"Nearly 4,500 teaching and non-teaching staff in colleges have been affected by this. The number of teachers who have not been paid salaries is around 2,200," Singh said.
He said that out of the 136 affected colleges, about 35 colleges have paid the teaching faculty and non-teaching staff from their own resources. In over 90 colleges, the teaching and non-teaching staff, including class IV employees, have gone without salary.
"In different colleges, the backlog of salaries ranges from four to 10 months. Without the state grants, most colleges are unable to pay salaries. Only the big colleges have paid from their own resources," he said.
"Despite the fact that the adequate budget existed, no grant was released to the colleges by the end of the financial year (2011-12). Even in the current financial year, no salary has been released by the Punjab treasury despite the persistent efforts by principal secretary (higher education)," Singh claimed.
The PCCTU leader said that the teaching community had earlier planned to go on strike during the on-going annual examinations in colleges but did not do so as the higher education officials were trying to get the grants released.
"Perhaps, the department of finance is waiting for some tragedy to happen. Human rights of employees are being violated by the government which is pushing employees to take drastic measures," he said.
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