THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even while the CPM-led LDF Government in Kerala is considering to raise the pension age of college teachers, the CPM-dominated West Bengal College and University Teachers’ Association (WBCUTA) is on the verge of a split over this issue.
In the state, the move is to raise the retirement age to 60 from 55, under the pretext of a non-existing UGC circular.
The issue in the WBCUTA rooted from the demand for raising the retirement age from 60 to 65 as recommended by the pay revision committee. However, the pay revision committee did not specify that raising the age limit to 60 is mandatory for getting the additional financial assistance for implementing the UGC pay scale as claimed by Finance Minister T.M.Thomas Isaac.
Further, while the State had not implemented the new pay scale till date, West Bengal Government had decided to implement the new pay scale without raising the pension age. This meant an increase in the salaries of college and university teachers by 70 percent.
A large section of the 83-year-old West Bengal College and University Teachers’ Association (WBCUTA) boycotted the annual general body meeting (AGM) of the Association on December 6, driving a deep wedge into the CPM monopolised teachers’ organisation on the failure to raise the pension age.
WBCUTA is a powerful body whose writ runs over all academic matters in Bengal and whose general secretaries often rise to become higher education ministers.
The rebels are led by a some senior WBCUTA office-bearers who switched loyalties to Trinamool Congress about a year ago and had floated a forum called the Democratic Teachers for Autonomy and Academic Freedom (DTAAF). However, the leader of DTAAF had maintained that they were still members of WBCUTA.
Kalyanmoy Ganguly, who was the WBCUTA vice-president is the convener of the DTAAF. Ganguly and some other moving forces behind the DTAAF are now associated with the Trinamool higher education cell. The DTAAF also comprises supporters of the Congress and the SUCI and a few from the Left parties such as the CPI and the Forward Bloc.
One of the interesting part is that the present Higher Education Minister Sudarshan Ray Chaudhuri was a general secretary of the WBCUTA. Satyasadhan Chakraborty, who was higher education minister before Ray Chaudhuri, too had been WBCUTA general secretary.
The WBCUTA’s clout rose during the Left Front rule when Anil Biswas, who headed the CPM’s education cell, took control of Bengal’s education system.
The clout was so visible to such an extent that no policy in the higher education sector was implemented in Bengal without the WBCUTA’s nod. The Association virtually controlled undergraduate education at the Universities of Calcutta, Burdwan, North Bengal and Kalyani and even the new universities such as the West Bengal State University in Barasat and Gour Banga University, Malda.
The Association recently suffered a rare setback with the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Government moving to grant autonomy to Presidency College against its wishes, but its influence is largely undiminished.