BHUBANESWAR: In a desperate bid to retain senior faculty members in the newly-established medical colleges in far-off regions, the state government on Wednesday hiked the salary of professors, associate professors and assistant professors (both regular and contractual) posted in them.
The financial incentives are based on the location of the medical colleges, which have been divided into zones. While eight districts - Koraput, Nabarangpur, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Balangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi and Kandhamal have been categorised as Zone A, 12 districts - Keonjhar, Boudh, Balasore, Gajapati, Sonepur, Deogarh, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Angul, Sundargarh and Mayurbhanj come under Zone B. The rest seven districts - Dhenkanal, Puri, Nayagarh, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Jagatsinghpur are under Zone C.
However, the financial incentives will not be applicable to the medical colleges set up or to be set up in Khurda, Cuttack and Ganjam districts. According to a notification, professors will be paid a monthly incentive of Rs 1.5 lakh in Zone A medical colleges, Rs 70,000 in Zone B and Rs 50,000 in Zone C over and above their monthly salary.
The associate professors will get an incentive of Rs 1.25 lakh in Zone A, Rs 50,000 in Zone B and Rs 35,000 in Zone C. Similarly, the assistant professors will be paid an incentive of Rs 75,000 in Zone A, Rs 30,000 in Zone B and Rs 20,000 in Zone C.
The dean and principal/superintendent of the new medical colleges will also get the incentive at the rate admissible to professors. The incentive will also be applicable to regular and contractual faculty from both inside and outside the state of all new government medical colleges to be set up in the zones in the future.
“Faculty persons availing leave of any kind, except casual leave, are not eligible to get the incentive during the leave period and in case of long absence or unauthorised absence and during the transit period for transfer,” the notification stated.
The Dean and principal/superintendent of medical colleges and hospitals have been directed to put in place mechanisms like CCTV and biometrics to monitor attendance and ensure that the incentives are drawn for the duty period.
The government has also enhanced the consolidated remuneration of medical college teachers engaged on a contractual basis. The monthly remuneration has been hiked from Rs 1.25 lakh to Rs 2.3 lakh for professors, from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh for associate professors and from Rs 75,000 to Rs 1.2 lakh for assistant professors. They will get a five per cent hike per annum.
Health secretary Shalini Pandit said the incentives were hiked following a review of the existing policy to ensure the availability of adequate faculty in the new medical colleges.