MADURAI: After three months of delay, authorities of the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) disbursed two months' salaries and pensions to some of its staff and pensioners on Saturday. However, the university’s decision to withhold the disbursements of salaries and pensions for other staffers and pensioners drew criticism from educationists.
Owing to financial constraints, staff and pensioners of MKU were not paid since December 2023. In this context, Principal Secretary to the Higher Education Department A Karthik released `30.26 crore with certain riders, such as revising the salaries of non-teaching staff and pensioners, on par with the Tamil Nadu government’s ministerial pay scale. Based on these riders, the university authorities sent show-cause notices to the concerned staff and pensioners.
Meanwhile, 50 non-teaching employees approached the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on March 1 and got an interim order against the pay revision. Despite this, the university officials disbursed pending salaries and pensions, leaving out 50 non-teaching staff and 66 pensioners who fell under the revised pay riders set by the higher education principal secretary.
Speaking to TNIE on the condition of anonymity, an administrative staff member condemned the MKU authorities for failing to pay salaries for the past three months, due to which they were facing many difficulties.
Administrative staff members plan to submit a representation to Vice-Chancellor J Kumar regarding the disbursement of salaries.
MKU Retired Employees Association president A Srinivasan told TNIE that recently, 66 pensioners received a show cause notice from MKU regarding the restructuring of their pay, and sought their reply within ten days of sending the notice. “Now, without considering their reply, the university officials have decided to revise their pay scale and have not issued their pensions. The pensioners are old, and withholding their pensions is unjust,” he said.
Save Higher Education Forum’s office bearer S Krishnaswamy said that withholding salaries of those who approached the court, and issuing show cause notices to them, was unjust and illegal. “The higher education principal secretary allegedly put forth a condition to hold their salaries, going against the high court’s interim order. The university authorities’ attitude is threatening, and they have started following a divide-and-rule policy, which is inhumane,” Krishnaswamy alleged.
Responding to the issue, Kumar said that as based on the additional advocate general's opinion, MKU authorities withheld the salaries and pensions of the non-teaching staff. “The university officials will approach the court to vacate the stay. We will also try to get a declaration to disburse the salaries, which is a cumbersome process,” he added.