UGC PANEL RECOMMENDS OVER 70% PAY HIKE FOR UNIVERSITY TEACHE

 In what could bring cheers to the university teachers, the UGC-Pay Review Committee on Friday recommended a whopping over 70 per cent pay hike with additional allowances and new positions to academics. The committee, headed by Prof G K Chadha, today submitted its report to the UGC Chairman Prof Sukhadeo Thorat. As per the recommendations, at the entry level, a faculty member will join as an assistant professor, not as a lecturer as earlier, and his new pay band will be between Rs 15,600 to Rs 39,100. The teacher at the entry level will be entitled for a grade pay of Rs 6,600. At present, a lecturer's pay scale is between Rs 8,000 to Rs 13,500. For assistant professor, assistant professor (senior scale) and assistant professor (senior grade), the pay band will between Rs 15,600 to Rs 39,100 while the grade pay will vary, Chadha told reporters here. A teacher will be entitled for annual increment of three per cent of the basic salary with compounding effect. Certain teachers with good performance record can get four per cent annual increment. Similarly, the committee has recommended a new band pay between Rs 37,400 to Rs 67,000 for professor against the existing scale of Rs 16,400 to Rs 22,400. "We have recommended more that 70 per cent hike in the scale of pay for various posts. For certain posts, the proposed hike is more than 90 per cent," Chadha said. The hike would benefit more than five lakh teachers in over 400 universities and over 6,000 colleges in the country.