It’s the beginning of March and all salaried people in Chandigarh are about to get their salaries for the previous month, except the top officials of Panjab University Chandigarh. The salaries of Vice Chancellor, the Dean, the controller of examinations, the Registrar, the Finance Development Officer and the teaching staff have been put on hold. This is not a good news but the university is left with no other option. The delay in the release of the salaries is due to the non-availability of funds. An additional grant of Rs 30.5 crore is required by the university to function smoothly.
Why the salary of PU officials has been withheld?
The decision to hold back the salaries of these officials has been taken while keeping in mind the fund crunch situation of the varsity. In spite of the Punjab and Haryana High Court directions to the UGC to release the fund of Rs 30 Crore, several reminders by PU could do nothing fruitful.
Arun Kumar Grover, Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University said that the university had to decide whose salary should be put on hold due to funds crunch. The university has decided that the salary of the highest-paid officials and staff members will be retained till the grant is released while the salaries of the class B and C staff along with other non-teaching staff will be given.
Further action to deal with the fund crunch at PU
The Registrar of the Panjab University, Col GS Chadha (retd), had met the officials in the finance department of the UGC to expedite the releasing of funds. The Panjab University requires a fund of Rs 31 crore the to give away the salaries of its staff on the campus. Out of the Rs 31 crore funds, rs 25 crore is the salary while Rs 6 crore is the pension for the retired personnel.
Talking about Panjab University, there are about 3,500 employees out of which 1000 are teaching staff and 2,500 are the non-teaching staff.
Panjab University is among the prestigious universities of India with alumni including Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, 9th President of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, Former Prime minister of India, Inder Kumar Gujaral, Former PM of India, Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs of India, Government of India, Kapil Sibal, Former Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India, Kirron Kher, MP Chandigarh / Actress and many more.
But we guess that these big names will not be much to boast about when the officials are not being paid. We wish the fund crunch at Panjab Unversity ends soon and everything comes back to normal.
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