In a big relief to thousands of teachers and staff of centrally funded technical

RELATED ARTICLES For IIT, B-school graduates, job outlook remains bright Rupee slide: RBI Governor meets Manmohan Singh Cabinet note moved on foreign players in domestic carriers Cabinet approves microfinance regulation bill

institutions, including IITs and IIMs, the government on Thursday revised their pay with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006. The revision of pay scales of faculty, design and scientific staff and other academic staff of the over 50 centrally funded institutions were approved by the Union Cabinet, chaired by prime minister Manmohan Singh.

The government also gave the go ahead for giving financial assistance to stat-es for implementing the revised scales, an official statement said.

The revision of salary will enable the institutes to recruit and retain quality faculty and will provide them an encouraging environment and working condition to enhance their performance and capacity, the statement said.

The government had earlier set up a committee under the chairmanship of Govardhan Mehta to recommend revised pay scale for faculty of centrally-funded technical institutions.

The Govardhan Mehta Pay Review Committee had suggested that the scale of pay of assistant professors in these institutions will be in the Pay Band of Rs 15,600 to Rs 39,100 with Academic Grade Pay (AGP) of Rs 8,000. The committee had said the position of lecturer could be offered on contractual basis and may be renewed in the pay band Rs 15,600 to Rs 39,100 with AGP of Rs 7,000.

The committee had further said three advance increments on non-compoundable basis may be allowed for those with M.Tech and six advance increments on non-compoundable basis may be allowed to lecturers with Ph.D.

The committee had suggested that pay scale of associate professors should be in pay band of Rs 37,400 to Rs 67,000 with AGP of Rs 10,000 while the minimum basic pay to be fixed at Rs 43,000.

The scale of pay for professors will remain in the pay band of Rs 37,400 to Rs 67,000 with AGP of Rs 11,000 and the minimum basic to be be fixed at Rs 48,000, it had said.

A professor will be eligible for enhanced AGP of Rs 12,000 with five years experience in the scale.

Adds Ritwik Mukherjee from Kolkata: Earlier on Thursday, teachers at various IITs, particularly at Kharagpur and Chennai started their agitation, wearing black badges and bands to protest against the non-implementation of the revised pay scales. Faculty members of IIMs were also restive. Speaking to Financial Chr-onicle, Anindya Sen, former dean of IIM-Calcutta, said, “We are also suffering the same way. It’s been long since our demands were met by the union HRD ministry.”