Himachal Pradesh University staff protest non-payment of salaries, boycott classes

Troubled by the non-payment of salaries, the Himachal Pradesh University Teachers’ Welfare Association (HPUTWA) and Non-Teaching Staff Association held a joint protest outside the Vice-Chancellor’s office on Monday, demanding the immediate disbursement of salaries. The teachers also boycotted the classes in protest of the non-payment of salaries.

During the protest, the university staff raised slogans against the university administration and also criticised the Director of Higher Education as well as the Secretary (Education) over their alleged insensitivity over this matter.

Addressing the protest, Nitin Vyas, president, HPUTWA said the Secretary (Education) had not signed the salary file, despite it being on his desk for 10 days. He said an inquiry should be held to find out the reason behind Secretary (Education) for not signing the file.

He said earlier, the university used to receive its grant-in-aid quarterly from the state government. However, it was now being provided on a monthly basis, due to which the university had to approach the government each month for funds. “As a state university, the Himachal Pradesh Government is responsible for ensuring timely payment of salaries, but this situation has made the university dependent and unstable,” he said.

“Adding to the university’s administrative paralysis is the absence of a Registrar, resulting in a backlog of files and delays in critical operations. This is a very unfortunate that there is a conspiracy being made to tarnish the reputation of the university in which several administrative officials are also involved,” he said.

He further said employees of the university were irked due to the non-implementation of Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) for teachers and Revised Pay Commission (RPC) for the non-teaching staff. Employees are also yet to receive arrears from the 2016 pay scale and full payment of dearness allowance.

They continued to protest for around three hours after which they met the Pro-Vice chancellor, Rajender Verma, who assured them a system would be introduced in the university within the next three days so that the salaries were be disbursed on time in future. After receiving the assurances, the university staff called off the protest.

Himachal Tribune