JU teachers go on strike for sixth pay panel benefits

Kolkata Jadavpur University (JU) teachers went on a day-long strike today, demanding immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission. Classes were suspended at the university as the teachers were busy agitating.
“We will forward our demands to the University Grants Commission, Ministry of Human Resource and Development and the State Higher Education Department,” said Keshav Bhattacharya, secretary of the Jadavpur University Teacher’s Association (JUTA), a CPM-backed teachers’ organisation.

“The UGC has not come out with a proper circular in this case. It is only after the UGC comes out with it that the state government will be able to implement the pay committee recommendations,” said Bhattacharya.

Till late in the evening, more than 200 teachers had joined the protests with JUTA.

As per recommendations of a UGC pay review committee headed by Professor G K Chaddha, 80 per cent of the arrears will be provided by the UGC and rest by the state government.

Although the hike in the salary of the university teachers has been substantial, the delay in implementation of the pay structure is troubling them.

So far the teachers are getting an additional sum as interim grant matching the increased salary.

In a government order on August 28 this year, the state government came out with certain specifications on the pay hike. “There are certain anomalies in the government order and we have pointed it out,” said a representative of the JUTA.

The recommendations have been in force since January 1, 2006, but the teachers have not got the increased salary as yet. “The state government will have to come up with a proper government order after which the Centre will release funds,” said Tarun Naskar, secretary of the All Bengal University Teachers Association, who is also a teacher at JU.