Patna: University teachers across the state staged a daylong dharna on Thursday against discrepancies in the seventh pay commission's recommendations.
Teachers held the dharna in different colleges and also at the university headquarters.
The daylong protest was organised by the Federation of University Teachers' Associations of Bihar (Futab) and was christened "Aakrosh dharna".
Futab state general secretary and MLC Sanjay Kumar Singh said: "The teachers decided to observe a daylong dharna as there are several discrepancies in the seventh pay commission's recommendations, which the Union government announced recently." Singh claimed that under the revised pay package for university teachers, the Centre was to bear 80 per cent of financial expenses incurred because of implementation of the seventh pay commission and for a period of 51 months.
But, according to the seventh pay commission recommendations announced last month, the Centre's share has been reduced to 50 per cent and time to 39 months.
Echoing Singh's views, Futab president K.B. Sinha said: "Whenever a new pay package is announced for university teachers, the extra financial expenses incurred is shared between the Centre and state. The Centre has to bear expenses incurred because of pay hike for 51 months and 80 per cent of total extra expenses, but the new recommendations have anomalies." The Futab members claimed that with such discrepancies, the state will have to bear an extra financial burden and in such a case many governments will delay the process of implementation.
The Futab has called a meeting of university teachers from across the state on December 12 to discuss future strategy. On October 11, the Union cabinet gave its approval for revision of pay scales for about 7 lakh teachers working at universities and other equivalent academic staff in higher educational institutions under the purview of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and in centrally funded technical institutions.
The ministry of human resources development (MHRD) had notified the revision details on November 2. Apart from discrepancies in financial grant from the Centre, the teachers' association is also protesting against recent pay revision, which they claim is in sharp contrast to earlier pay revisions. "The pay commission recommendations also mentioned that it will bear expenses of teachers notified till January 1, 2016 and the state government would bear financial expenses under seventh pay commission's recommendation for teachers who were notified after the period."
