‘Make audit of private dental colleges a must’

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab chapter of Dental Surgeons’ Association of India (DSAI) has written to the Punjab government highlighting the alleged malpractices at the state’s private dental colleges.

In the letter, the association said the doctors working in private dental colleges as faculty were not being given their due. The association claimed that though the appointment letters given to the dental faculty said they would be paid as per the payscales of University Grants Commission, it was not so.

The association said that at each level the doctors were grossly paid low. It alleged that assistant professors were paid anywhere between Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000, and associate professors between Rs 30,000 and 50,000 per month. They were being denied non-practising allowance, dearness allowance, leave travel concession and provident fund, it claimed.

The association demanded that the audit of private dental colleges should be made mandatory and every staff member should be interviewed about the remuneration they were getting.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has already asked the state audit department to conduct audit of private colleges. The audit officials, along with Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, tried to conduct the audit of one of the colleges also but the college authorities didn’t allow this, the association further alleged.