Teachers at Delhi University (DU) on Monday, July 7, urged Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh to address the issue of salary and pension-related matters in several colleges.

In a letter written to the VC, several DU faculty members, including the members of the University's Academic and Executive Councils, the decision-making counterpart of the university, asserted that the "crisis" is not limited to permanent and ad hoc teachers as even guest teachers in a few colleges have not been paid for the last five months, according to PTI.

"Despite the onset of July, the salaries of teachers and employees for June are still awaited. In some cases, the dues are more than a month," the letter read.

The academicians allege that the delay in payment of salaries is becoming a new normal which is creating hardships for them as they also have to settle their payments and dues. The teachers also wrote to Dean of Colleges Balaram Pani, raising the concern that the salaries of the ad-hoc teachers have not been paid in Dayal Singh College and Gargi College for the last three months.

Repeatedly raised the issue
The letter said that they have been repeatedly raising this issue of the separation of salary heads of ad-hoc teachers and contractual employees from salary heads of permanent ones and bringing them together with the pension head. They also said that it might lead to such a salary and pension crisis, and the teachers are suffering due to the situation not being addressed.

The remunerations of the guest teachers have also been pending for more than a month in many colleges, the letter mentioned.

"The retired teachers and employees have not received their pensions for more than a month in many colleges. In some cases, only partial payment of the monthly pension was released," it added.

The teachers addressed this as something that needs to be resolved on an urgent basis as the financial problems have reached crisis proportions. They are no more sporadic but have rather become systemic, the teachers said.