New Delhi, Oct. 8: Many young scientists lured from positions abroad into faculty jobs in universities across India through a special initiative to address a "steep decline" in the research environment in universities are struggling for regular salaries, research students and facilities.

Sections of these teachers, recruited under the Faculty Recharge Programme (FRP) launched by the University Grants Commission in 2013 to "upgrade faculty resources" in science and engineering, say they continue to face hardships despite multiple appeals to the UGC and other agencies.

Over 70 FRP faculty from universities across India have in letters to the UGC and the Union human resource development ministry pleaded for timely payment of salaries, opportunities to guide PhD students and even for rooms and furniture.

They have also sought permanent positions on satisfactory completion of their initial five-year service periods and uniform policies for timely promotions to discourage some universities from treating them as "temporary guest faculty".

More than 35 universities, including the University of Delhi, Goa University, Jadavpur University, Osmania University, Presidency University, University of Rajasthan and University of Pune, among others, have accepted FRP faculty over the past three years. The faculty - all PhD-holders with post-doctoral experience - joined the departments of biochemistry, chemistry, electronics, geology, physics, pharmaceutical sciences, among other disciplines, in these universities.

The national coordinator for the FRP initiative, who has since resigned, declined to comment.

Educationists familiar with the programme say the faculty's experience suggests that academic bureaucracy and entrenched interests in universities have stymied the FRP initiative. Several faculty members who spoke to The Telegraph requested anonymity, fearing retribution from the UGC or their universities.

The FRP had been intended to address long-standing concerns that universities across the country, especially state varsities, had not recruited research faculty on a significant scale for long and, as the UGC said, are "in danger of losing more than a generation of researchers".

Between 2013 and 2015, academic panels set up by the UGC recruited over 100 researchers and assigned them special positions called UGC-assistant professors in one of four universities of their choice. Many had moved from academic positions and opportunities in China, France and the US, among other countries.

"We did not expect things to be rosy or trouble-free - but we didn't imagine we'd be denied our salaries for months," said one such faculty member. "Instead of concentrating on teaching and research, some of us have been forced to worry about food, rent, even a room or a lab to work."

Senior officials familiar with the programme say FRP faculty in some universities have successfully settled in their departments but concede that others have had trouble in their universities.

"The FRP was intended to benefit the universities, but some are not cooperating," one official said.

Faculty members at the University of Delhi and Osmania University said they had largely been content with their host institutions, although they too face salary delays. However, faculty members from other universities, particularly state varsities, say they feel they have not been "accepted" by their institutions.

A senior academician expressed his disappointment at what he views as the failure of universities to absorb talent.

"This was a well-conceived programme to bring outstanding research talent into our universities - but if FRP faculty are not treated at par with other faculty, it can create discord," Sampat Kumar Tandon, emeritus professor of geology at the University of Delhi and a member of the selection panel for UGC faculty, told The Telegraph.

A UGC panel for basic scientific research had in a meeting on January 10, 2017, noted that one of the main reasons for the problems faced by FRP faculty is that the "host universities are not adhering" to the pact they had signed with the UGC in accepting FRP faculty.

Under the pact, the UGC was to send universities annual funds to cover salary payments for FRP faculty and the universities were to provide the faculty space and facilities and assign them teaching and supervision duties. But dozens of FRP faculty members have not received regular monthly payments. They receive their salaries in chunks covering six months, 10 months, or 12 months.

Many FRP faculty members are now looking for new positions elsewhere. Mathivanan Jothi, a biotechnology specialist who had joined Bharatiyar University, Coimbatore, joined the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, in January this year.

"It was frustrating - to the university, I was like a stepchild. A university finance official actually used that word. I was told, anything the university does for me is a favour," said Jothi, who had joined the FRP programme after five years in the US and one year in Italy.

Some FRP faculty recruited in 2013 and 2014 are worried about their upcoming appraisals in 2018 and 2019, concerned that the denial of infrastructure and facilities has hobbled their pace of research and publications.

In some universities, FRP faculty have not got proper rooms with basic infrastructure even a year after they had joined their departments, one complaint letter read. A faculty member in southern India recalled how lack of computational facilities has made progress in research "very, very slow".

Several FRP faculty members are angry at what they see as the UGC's inaction. "The UGC admits universities have breached the memorandum of understanding, but what action has it taken against the universities? The answer is: nothing," said a faculty member at the University of Rajasthan.

Across state universities, FRP faculty complain that their departments have denied them opportunities to supervise PhD students, pointing out that their initial positions are only for five-year periods.

"Many treat us as temporary guest faculty and hesitate to assign PhD students," said one faculty member.

Another faculty member recalls that when he approached an official in his university with a letter from the UGC seeking certain facilities, the official retorted: "We get such letters daily, we throw them in the dustbin without reading them."

The UGC panel on basic scientific research decided in November 2016 to stop taking fresh applications for FRP positions. The panel decided in January this year to "grade universities in terms of their adherence" to their pacts to provide appropriate research facilities to FRP faculty.

"The UGC offered the FRP to universities, they accepted it, we brought bright people back to India," Tandon said.

"But there is a diversity of universities. It has worked well in some universities, but not so well in most. These things depend a lot on individuals who run university departments."