Release grants to 12 DU colleges funded by city gov't immediately: Teachers' associations ask CM

On Wednesday, June 29, the teachers' wing of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Delhi Teachers' Association (DTA) urged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to release instantly the grants of 12 Delhi University (DU) colleges funded by the city government. The DTA issued a statement in which its president Hansraj Suman briefed that from 12 colleges, a delegation met him and expressed that thousands of academic and non-teaching staff are dealing with a financial crisis as they are not getting their salaries on time, as stated in a report by PTI.

The official statement read, "The teachers in some colleges have not received their salaries for two months. The teachers have told Suman that months have passed since they were promoted and they have not been paid arrears to date. Similarly, their medical bills have not been cleared." Not just the salary payments but also medical bills, retirement benefits and other development expenses are also pending in these colleges due to the non-release of grants, Suman added. 

While demanding the government to clear the arrears for the promotion of the teachers, the statement also showed asking CM and deputy CM to sort out this issue at the earliest. "The DTA has urged the chief minister and the deputy chief minister to help the 12 fully-funded colleges by the Delhi government without any further delay in releasing the funds so that the salaries and other dues are paid to the teachers and staff in this extremely difficult and stressful time," as stated in a report by PTI. Voicing out their concerns against the non-payment of salaries "for the past two months," the teaching and non-teaching staff of the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (DDUC) staged a sit-in protest last week.

Apart from DDUC, the other colleges funded by the Delhi government are — Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women, Aditi Mahavidyalaya, Keshav Mahavidyalaya, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Bhagini Nivedita College, Acharya Narendra Dev College, Maharishi Valmiki College of Education, Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences, Indira Gandhi Institute of Physical Education and Sports Science and Maharaja Agrasen College.

To recollect what happened earlier, the Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) reached out to Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh to convene a special meeting of the University's Executive Council to consider the "remedial measures" to deal with the current financial crisis in the colleges funded by the city government. On June 17, the DUTA issued a statement stating the university should consider the takeover of the 12 colleges funded by the Delhi government. It was also mentioned in the statement that because of the non-release of funds by the government, there was a shortage of funds to pay the salaries and other dues of teachers and employees.