Delhi: Teachers' body urges CM Arvind Kejriwal to release grants of 12 govt-funded DU colleges

NEW DELHI: The teachers' wing of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Delhi Teachers' Association (DTA), urged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday to immediately release the grants of the 12 Delhi University (DU) colleges funded by the city government. In a statement, DTA president Hansraj Suman informed that a delegation of teachers from the 12 colleges met him and said thousands of academic and non-teaching staff are not getting their salaries on time and thus, facing a financial crisis.

"The teachers in some colleges have not received their salaries for two months. The teachers have told Suman that months have passed since they were promoted and they have not been paid arrears to date. Similarly, their medical bills have not been cleared," the statement read. Suman said not only the salary payments have been affected due to the non-release of grants, but medical bills, retirement benefits and other development expenses are also pending in these colleges. He demanded from the Delhi government that the arrears for the promotion of the teachers should also be released soon.

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"The DTA has urged the chief minister and the deputy chief minister to help the 12 fully-funded colleges by the Delhi government without any further delay in releasing the funds so that the salaries and other dues are paid to the teachers and staff in this extremely difficult and stressful time," the statement read.

The teaching and non-teaching staff of the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (DDUC) staged a sit-in protest last week against the non-payment of salaries "for the past two months". Apart from DDUC, the other colleges funded by the Delhi government are -- Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women, Aditi Mahavidyalaya, Keshav Mahavidyalaya, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Bhagini Nivedita College, Acharya Narendra Dev College, Maharishi Balmiki College of Education, Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences, Indira Gandhi Institute of Physical Education and Sports Science and Maharaja Agrasen College.

The DUTA had urged vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh earlier to convene a special meeting of the Executive Council of the university to consider the "remedial measures" to deal with the current financial crisis in the colleges funded by the city government. In a statement dated June 17, the DUTA had said the university should consider the takeover of the 12 colleges funded by the Delhi government. It had pointed out that these colleges were short of funds to pay the salaries and other dues of the teachers and employees because of the non-release of funds by the government.