Delhi University staff awaits its dues
We have been patiently waiting for five months. No more now. It is a do or die situation for us,” is what the DU teaching and nonteaching staff have to say about the call given by Delhi University Teacher’s Association (DUTA) for a university-wide shutdown beginning Thursday. The staff, who belong to 12 DU colleges that are fully funded by the Delhi government, are protesting against the non-payment of salaries, which have been delayed as the state government is yet to disburse grants to these colleges.
Moreover, the college administrations are now being told to use the deposits made by students, including the security deposit, for giving salaries, which the teachers say is totally ‘illegal’. “The college authorities sometimes take loan from this amount, but it is always returned to the corpus. Paying salaries through this fund would mean emptying the coffers. How would we return the money to students leaving college then?” asks a college administrative officer.
Teachers, especially the younger ones, who are living on rental accommodations or have bought homes on loans, are in a much problematic situation as they have no money to pay their EMIs or rents. “Initially, my senior colleague helped me with some loan, but how long can she lend me money? She has her expenses,” says an assistant professor. “As senior teachers, we have savings, our children are earning, so we have less problems. The younger staff who have started their families are having a really tough time,” says Dr Sujata Sinha, Associate Professor – Botany at Deen Dayal Upadhyay College (DDUC).
But then senior teachers have their medical expenses that are not being reimbursed. “My husband is a cancer patient and my bills worth Rs 2 lakh are pending. The situation is getting tougher by the day,” says Dr Sarla BhZardwaj, a Maths professor at Bhim Rao Ambedkar College. “Since November we are being told that ‘all funds have been released by the Delhi government as per the rules’ and that we will get our salaries,” says a professor teaching at Acharya Narendra Dev College, not wanting to be named.
In fact, many teachers, while being vocal about the problems being faced due to non-payment of salaries are too scared to share their names with us for the fear of being singled out by the government. One professor, teaching on an ad hoc basis at the Aditi Mahavidyalaya, says, “All the Delhi Government talks of women empowerment and being disabled- friendly is a sham.
More than 70 per cent of the staff in these colleges is female, a large number of disabled and people belonging to SC/ST community are also there, no one is being paid. The government proudly declared that one-fourth of its budget is dedicated to education. Do we not fall in the education sector?” The teachers at the DDUC have been sitting on dharna since March 08.
“The government is telling us that we must fulfil our moral duty by taking classes, but for how long? We have stretched ourselves too far. It is a do or die situation for us,” says Dr Charu Kalra, who teaches Botany at DDUC. “We didn’t want to become aandolankaari jeev, but we don’t have a choice,” she says.Income Tax The permanent staff at the colleges is under an additional pressure – the government diktat that they have to pay their income tax. “We are being told to pay income tax on salaries we didn’t get. How insensitive can they get?” asks Dr Sinha.
Another threat
The teachers feel since the Centre and the state government don’t see eye to eye, the Union Home Minister, the Union Education Minister, and even the Prime Minister are not bothered about them. “Why is the Centre not intervening on our behalf ? Do we not count?” asks Dr Bhardwaj. “We have also heard that the Delhi Government plans to pull all these 12 DU colleges into its own state university, like they have done to the College of Art.
Although, under the DU Act there is a due process that has to be followed, the way government pulled College of Art makes the threat very real,” says Dr Anubha Mukherjee Sen, Associate Professor — English at DDUC.
“The Government’s action of unilaterally announcing the merger of College of Art with Ambedkar University in complete violation of statutory provisions is not acceptable,” says Rajib Ray, DUTA President DUTA plans to hold two teachers’ rallies from the university: to the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s residence on March 15, and to the LG’s office on March 18.
ONE YEAR AND COUNTING
In a letter to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, DUTA President Rajib Ray has conveyed the “anguish and anger of the teachers of DU over the obdurate stance taken by him and his government in not releasing grants to the 12 DU colleges, 100 per cent funded by the Delhi Government”. The DUTA has been writing to the CM for over a year now, on its dismay “at the manner in which your government is treating the employees.”