IIT faculty to meet to decide move on revised pay

New Delhi: IIT faculty federation representatives are meeting in Kolkata on Monday to discuss the future course of action on their revised pay plan.

The faculty of IITs are dissatisfied with the notification issued by Union Ministry of Human Resource Development or MHRD, on September 16 that deprived them of an immediate pay rise for faculty of centrally funded technical institutes like IITs and IIMs.

They feel the Government has ignored other demands for enhanced allowances.

The HRD ministry has also asked all the IITs, central universities and IIMs to generate additional revenue by increasing fees. Central universities and institutes have been asked to revise the fee structure, reduce costs related to infrastructure and seminars. IIM Kolkata and Ahmedabad are also participating in the meeting.

The government had come up with a revised pay package for faculty of Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs), including IITs, but was silent on lifting the cap on promotion of professors, triggering protest from senior teaching staff who said it would affect the autonomy of the elite institutes.

The fresh notification brought out by the HRD Ministry on the pay structure of CFTIs said that the post of lecturer-cum-post-Doctoral Fellows will be redesignated as Assistant Professors on contract.

The Ministry had brought out a notification on August 18 this year on the revision of pay of teaching and non-teaching staff of CFTIs. The notification said that

maximum 40 per cent of the professors can be promoted to senior grade depending on their performance.

This provision had sparked protest among the IIT faculty which demanded lifting of any cap on their promotion. The fresh notification is silent on the issue.

"The pay package tends to curb the autonomy of the IITs which they have so far enjoyed. The cap on promotion is against the declared policy of education and educational reforms. Prime Minister, HRD Minister, National Knowledge Commission and Yashpal committee have emphasised autonomy of higher educational institutions. But the pay package tends to control the IITs," Prof S S Murthy, president of IIT Faculty Federation, said on September 17 to PTI.

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IIT Faculty Federation, a body of teaching staff of all IITs, will discuss the fresh pay package and then decide its future course of action on the issue, Murthy said.

"The cap on promotion is illogical," he had said.

The fresh notification is silent on federation's demand for starting performance incentive scheme also. The federation had demanded that IIT faculty be provided special incentives on the basis of their performance.

The government has accepted the federation's demand that assistant professors be placed in a better pay band.

The notification said the assistant professors in the centrally funded technical institutions, including IITs and IIMs, shall move to an upper pay band (PB-4) after three years of service.

If they are moved to PB-4, they will be eligible for a scale of Rs 37,400 to 67,000 per month with an Academic Grade Pay of Rs 9,000.

Federation members had a meeting with HRD Minister Kapil Sibal last week where they had also demanded post-retirement medical facilities for IIT employees. However, there was no mention about any such scheme in the fresh notification.

The notification further said that the age of superannuation of librarians, registrar and finance officers of these centrally funded technical institutions will be 62 years.

(With inputs from PTI)