10% Cap for Higher AGP for Universty Professors: Lifted or Scrapped?

It appears from the UGC Regulations relating to the new pay scales for university and college teachers that there is a 10 per cent cap on professors eligible for a higher AGP of. This 10 per cent cap should be lifted. The 10-per cent limit certainly will lead to nepotism and politics involving institute administrators in picking beneficiaries of the higher salary. Academic Grade Pay of Rs.12,000.00 should be given to all professors who have completed ten years of service and there should be no cap of 10 per cent as is the case now. If this is not agreeable to the government the system of 10 per cent cap should be scrapped.

PROFESSORS’ FORUM OF INDIA [http://professorsindia.com]

Professors working in various Universities and institutes in India have, for a time, desired to have a common platform for discussing vital issues concerning Indian Higher Education System that have a bearing on the development of the society as a whole. Undisputedly, India has made long strides in the area of Higher Education with the Indian academia having established themselves internationally in various areas of specializations along with the Indian students making a mark world over. Sadly, though, it has also witnessed a decline in the academic values and educational governance because of the increasing preponderance of unethical practices such as nepotism, corruption and blatant statutory violations that are carried out under the patronage of a select few. As a result, scholarly, hardworking and honest academicians who believe in academic professionalism and values are being increasingly marginalized in the University and Higher Education System. This has serious portents as the quality and also the credibility of the Higher Education System in India gets jeopardized. Besides the teachers’ organizations there are no such bodies to expose, represent and fight against the malpractices that have crept into the system. In a scenario of this kind there is a need for rejuvenating university system including governance which directly affects the academic life and quality. It is with this objective that like minded scholars have come forward and decided to establish the Professors’ Forum of India
Membership is open to all serving and superannuated Professors of Central and State Universities, IIMs, IITs, Deemed to be Universities, Private Universities (Recognized by UGC), Engineering Colleges and Institutions like NCERT, NCTE, AICTE, NIT, and other such bodies of national importance.
A one time membership of Rs.500.00 to be paid through bank draft/cheque (add Rs.100.00 in case of cheques from outside Delhi) payable at New Delhi in favour of “Professors’ Forum of India”. Kindly mail the forms along with bank draft(s)/cheque(s) to Professors’ Forum of India, C/o 818, Levy Pinto Block, Asian Games Village, New Delhi – 110 049, INDIA. Please note that this is a mailing address only and not the office.
The cheques/cash/demand draft can also be deposited in the Punjab National Bank, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi Savings A/c No. 2257000102038246 from any CBS branch of Punjab National Bank all over India.

The Telegraph. Saturday, September 19, 2009
In cost-cut times,bureaucrats hike their own pay !

In a season of austerity, some top bureaucrats have quietly yanked up their take-home pay.
Senior bureaucrats have given themselves a massive, second salary hike just a year after their pay was revised under the Sixth Pay Commission — at a time when the government is cutting costs, swearing by austerity.
Additional secretary-level officers, second in the nation’s babudom hierarchy, have been placed in a pay scale that starts over 80 per cent above the range in which they were placed under the pay commission.
The new pay range means the basic salaries of senior additional secretaries could be more than that of vice-chancellors of central universities or directors of the National Institutes of Technology (NITs).
The personnel ministry has amended the Indian Administrative Service (Pay) Rules to place additional secretaries at a pay scale starting at Rs 67,000 a month, up from a pay band starting at Rs 37,400 a month. The Telegraph has a copy of the amended rules.
Ironically, the amended rules were notified just five days before the government snipped proposed salaries for IIT and IIM faculty, citing a shortage in central funds to meet demands of the teachers.
The amendment also comes in the middle of a drought-like crisis that has prompted the Congress party-led UPA to launch an ostentatious austerity drive with ministers vying to publicise steps they are taking to cut costs.
Sonia Gandhi has taken economy class flights, Rahul Gandhi braved stone-pelting miscreants in travelling by a Shatabdi train, and junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor has faced reprimand for allegedly ridiculing the austerity drive.
The human resource development ministry yesterday issued a notification to all IITs, IIMs, central universities and other bodies under its control to cut expenses, minimise travel, and reduce subsidies offered to students.
Additional secretaries were sanctioned salaries starting at Rs 37,400 a month with a one-time rank-based increment — called a grade pay — of Rs 12,000 a month under the Sixth Pay Commission.
But under the amended IAS (Pay) rules, bureaucrats of this rank have been pushed up to starting basic salaries of Rs 67,000 a month.
They are to receive annual increments at 3 per cent, and their basic salaries — at this rank — are bound by a ceiling of Rs 79,000.
The basic salary of a central university vice-chancellor or the director of an NIT is fixed at Rs 75,000 a month.