Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday announced the revision of pay scale for the teachers of higher education level.
The announcement comes at a time when there have been reports of protests, suicide attempt etc. by the teachers of the provincialized schools across the State who have been working without any remuneration for more than a decade.
While claiming that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led State Government fulfilled the promise made before 2016 Assam Assembly election, Sarma said, “By implementing the UGC revised pay scale, we have fulfilled the promises we made before 2016 Assembly election.”
“Around 8,800 teachers of the Government degree colleges, provincialized colleges and universities of the State would be benefitted by the UGC revised pay scale with effect from 01/04/2016. The budget for the current year in this purpose is 166 crore. The arrear liability would be 476 crore,” Sarma said.
Sarma also informed that the engineering colleges, medical colleges, polytechnic colleges, ayurvedic colleges, dental colleges, nursing colleges and pharmaceutical institutions would also be included under the revised pay scale.
Sarma said, “The arrear liability for the teachers under Directorate of Technical Education would be 27 crore and 58 crore for the teachers under the Directorate of Medical Education.”
Besides, Dr Sarma stated that around 1800 teachers of the Medical Colleges and 1000 teachers of the Engineering Colleges would also be benefited under the UGC revised pay scale.
Talking about the release of funds, Sarma said, “We are hoping to release the funds before Durga Puja festival.”