Big hike for 8 lakh college teachers

Raises up to 28%, will cost govt ~70,000 cr

NEW DELHI: Nearly 800,000 teachers and staff working in colleges, universities and institutions run by the Centre and state governments are set to get a massive pay hike in the range of 22-28%.

The Cabinet is set to take up a UGC panel’s recommendation in this regard this month, sources said, adding that it is “most likely to sail through”.

“A decision on allowances will be taken up later,” a senior HRD ministry official said.

As per the proposal, an assistant professor’s entry pay would jump by ~10,396 with a grade pay of ~6,000 while that of an associate professor will rise by ~23,662.

The last pay hike for teachers was implemented in 2006. Several teachers’ associations of various universities and colleges have been threatening to go on strike over the delay in implementation of the seventh pay commission even after the UGC panel submitted its report in February.

The pay revision will benefit faculty and staff in state govern- ment-funded colleges and universities, at central universities, and other centrally funded technical institutions such as IITs and NITs, among others.

Centrally-funded technical institutions will have a separate pay structure and a different p ay panel has suggested increasing their salary structure, but the proposals are being considered together, officials said.

The pay hike is likely to cost approximately ~70,000 crore over a period of three years, and this would be shared equally by the Centre and states, sources said.

The government had last year constituted a pay review committee, headed by UGC member VS Chauhan, which had submitted its recommendations earlier this year.

Following this, the HRD ministry formed a committee to review the recommendations.