The Delhi Government has announced that Grant-in-Aid has been released for 12 government-funded colleges of the Delhi University to clear the outstanding salaries of the teaching and non-teaching staff.
The announcement was made via a letter written to the Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta and Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri by the Delhi government’s Directorate of High Education. The letter said that Grant-in-Aid has been released to the 12 colleges on April 19 and has been credited in their accounts on April 22 for disbursement of salary and miscellaneous expenses.
This move came after the BJP leaders had written to the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Government demanding that outstanding payments be cleared in DU colleges funded by the government. The Delhi University Teachers' Association had reached out to the two leaders, as well as the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Anil Baijal, seeking their intervention in the matter.
However, the DUTA isn't all that happy with the response by the Delhi Government. AK Bhagi, President of the DUTA, in a statement to Edexlive, said, "The funds released as part of the first quarter in the budget allocation are simply not enough to pay the full salaries of three months of the staff. In this scenario, there is little to talk about the long list of other pending dues."
What are these other dues that DUTA speaks of? They claim that the medical bills of the faculty have not been reimbursed. There is also a deficit of around 20 crore, says Prof Bhagi. To add to that, some colleges are in dire need of infrastructure updates.
BJP leader Bidhuri, who thanked the LG for his intervention in getting these funds released, has also sought direction to the Delhi Government to release the outstanding funds of these colleges in order to clear these dues. He said in a statement, “The Delhi government provides 100 per cent grant to 12 colleges of Delhi University, but due to the withholding of the grant by the Kejriwal government for the last one year, not only the salary of teaching and non-teaching staff but medical bills, LTC and other arrears also could not be paid."
