Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College teachers to intensify protest over non-payment of salaries

NEW DELHI: Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (DDU) teachers and non-teaching staff have been protesting for the past two days over non-payment of regular salaries and other dues for the past three years. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya is one among the 12 constituent colleges of University of Delhi, which is fully funded by the Delhi government.

The staff and the students said that they intend to intensify their protest in the forthcoming days to draw the attention of Lt Governor VK Saxena and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to look into the matter.

Hundreds of Delhi University students also joined the DDU College staff association protest staged in front of the college gate in Sector-3, Dwarka. These 12 DU colleges have been facing a fund crunch for the past 3 years now.

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The professors and the other staff of the college have not received their salaries for the past 4 months including the medical expenses, arrears, child care allowance, LTC and pensions.

“The atrocities have now reached an extent where the college could not pay the retirement benefits to its 2 colleagues, who have just retired in the month of January 2023 after serving the institution for more than 40 years,” DDU College staff association said in a statement.

Various teachers’ associations, including Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA), have been protesting against the non-payment of salaries.

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Stating that the health of the institution will be ‘affected badly”, the teachers said that the irregular payment of salaries and denial of other benefits has impacted the livelihood of the staff. “The entire staff has been passing through extremely tough times where some are unable to pay their EMIs, and monthly rent,” it said.

Criticising the AAP government, the teachers group said: “The Kejriwal Government has paid salaries till September 2022. The deficit in the release of the grants stands to the tune of Rs 25.7 crores.”