DU blames Delhi government of releasing inadequate funds

New Delhi: Amidst the outbreak of coronavirus, thousands of teachers and helping staff of the Delhi University’s 12 colleges that are fully funded by the Delhi government have been struggling to get their salaries for the last three months.

However, the agitation of the teachers and appeal have forced the Delhi government to release grants pertaining to these colleges, though the teachers have termed the amount insufficient to clear the backlog and pay the current month’s salary.

The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) has written a letter to Delhi’s Education Minister Manish Sisodiya, pleading him to release full and adequate grants so that the backlog could be cleared.

“It has been brought to our notice that the grant sanctioned is measly enough for covering salaries of the past two months; if so, we request that the Directorate of Higher Education may be asked to enquire into the matter and release the required funds to clear the backlog,” DUTA’s letter conveyed to Sisodia on 26 March reads.

Abha Dev Habib, expressing her dismay over the persistent salary crisis in the Delhi government-funded colleges, said: “This is unfortunate that teachers over the past one decade have been kept busy by the successive governments in asking for their dues—be it an appointment, promotion, pension—and now it has come to asking for salaries.”
It is said that the tussle over the formation of governing bodies in 12 Delhi University affiliated colleges between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government and the Delhi University (DU) administration has led to a prolonged salary crisis in all these colleges. Sources have said that the AAP wants its own party affiliated people to be appointed as members of the governing bodies and a list containing the names of the prospective members was sent to the DU administration. However, the DU administration did not accept the names as some of them did not qualify for the criterion that is in place to appoint an individual as member of a governing body in any of these 12 colleges.

Sources have also confirmed that the list of names for appointment as members of the governing bodies sent by the AAP to the DU administration has one property dealer, one salon owner and one part-time social worker who is not even a graduate.

On the other hand, the Delhi government has blamed the DU administration of acting on the behest of the Central BJP-led government and putting an obstacle in the swift formation of governing bodies in the colleges that are funded by it.