More than 4,000 teaching and non-teaching staff of colleges across Puducherry have been on an indefinite strike, asking the government to implement the seventh pay commission pay scales. Since January 18, the protesting teachers have boycotted all the lectures.

"We will continue this strike until the govt makes an announcement about when the new pay scales according to the 7th pay commission will be implemented," says Dr D Ramkumar, a faculty in Kasturba College for Women, Puducherry. "Our joint action committee will decide the further course of action. The students have also come out in our support," he says. He adds that the protesting teachers have been informed by the Chief Minister V Narayanasamy that the government is facing a fund crunch and hence finds it unable to implement the new pay scales.

According to the seventh pay commission guidelines, the teaching and non-teaching staff have to get a hike of 23.5 per cent in their salaries. This will expect the government to allot an extra Rs 35 Crore per annum in its budget. "The government can give the hike to every other department, but why are we ignored?" questions Ramkumar. "This had to implemented for the teachers on January 2018 and for the non-teaching staff in September 2016," he says. Until now, the new pay scales are implemented only in seven Government Arts and Science Colleges and one Law College in the Union Territory.