New Delhi: Pensioners and ad hoc teachers of several colleges affiliated to Delhi University (DU) are struggling due to non-payment or massive delays in disbursal of pensions and salaries over the last six months, serving and former employees told ThePrint.
The University Grants Commission (UGC), which used to release funds to these colleges directly, had changed the procedure of disbursal in 2020. This was done “to prevent misuse of funds and ensure that all arrears are cleared”, but several colleges have not been receiving UGC funds on time due to this procedural change, according to principals of a few colleges.
The affected colleges include Ramanujan College and Rajdhani College. According to some professors, there are over 5,000 pensioned teaching staff members in the university.
Delhi University Registrar Vikas Gupta told ThePrint that these funds are directly released by the UGC and the university has no say in the matter.
ThePrint reached UGC Joint Secretary Jitendra Kumar Tripathi over email but did not receive a response. This article will be updated once a response is received.
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‘No strength to go around knocking doors’
R S Gangwar, a former professor with DU’s Dayal Singh College, is yet to receive his pension for November. The 82-year-old’s pension for October was credited to his account only on 20 December.
The former geography professor says he can’t visit the university in his current condition. “I retired in 2005 and this irregularity in disbursement of funds has only just appeared as a trend. While my younger colleagues have been writing to the UGC, I am in no condition to go around knocking doors.”
Gangwar pointed out that the situation had become so deplorable that in the month of October, some colleges sent an amount of Rs 15,000 to their pensioners and ad hoc staff so that they could celebrate Diwali with their families. “They have written to the UGC chairman and the DU vice-chancellor, but are yet to hear from them,” he added.
Members of the teaching staff ThePrint spoke to said that while they can deal with the fund paucity, retired non-teaching staff members, who get much smaller amounts as pension, are struggling to get by and are seeking their help to solve the problem.
UGC released grants to 53 Delhi colleges
Earlier this year, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in a written response in Lok Sabha said that the UGC had released grants worth Rs 2134.54 crore, Rs 2446.83 crore and Rs 590.51 crore during the financial years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 (up to June 2022) respectively to 53 Delhi colleges.
Earlier, the UGC used to pay this amount directly to colleges. However, in 2020, a new procedure was initiated and since then the UGC sends the funds to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The funds are ultimately disbursed to colleges via the Public Financial Management System of the Ministry of Finance, which was implemented in 2016.
Colleges scraping by
For the last six months, DU’s Ramanujan College has been paying its staff by dipping into its commercial funds, usually earmarked for college expenses. However, it will no longer be able to do so. The college, in a statement, told ThePrint: “We have stopped the salary of all our staff members to avoid conflict. It is not fair that some staff members be paid and others not.”
While Rajdhani College had released pensions for the month of November in mid-December, Dayal Singh College disbursed pensions for October only in December.
Former professors said that although Swami Dayanand College had released pensions, it is yet to receive UGC funds.
A few pensioners claimed that Indraprastha College for Women had not paid pension for the last two months.
‘Confusion also leads to delay in payments’
Explaining the reason for the possible delay, Rajiv Aggarwal, principal of Deshbandhu College, said: “It is possible that some colleges may not have sent their accounts in proper format, sometimes this confusion also leads to delay in transfer of funds. In addition to this, the UGC may have sent some amount for ad hocs and some for pensioners and the colleges may be trying to do justice to all by periodically allocating some amount to the two stakeholders.”
Rajdhani College principal Rajesh Giri told ThePrint that the college has reached out to the UGC seeking timely allocation of funds.
(Edited by Geethalakshmi Ramanathan)
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