Govt abolishes post of lecturer in IITs

Faced with strong demands from the faculty of IITs, the government has abolished the post of lecturer in the elite institutes and revised the pay structure for teachers, but did not withdraw the cap on promotion of professors to senior grade.

The HRD ministry has brought out a fresh notification on the pay structure of Centrally Funded Technical Institutions  which said that the post of lecturer-cum-post-Doctoral Fellows will be redesignated as assistant professors. They will be appointed on contact basis.

The IIT Faculty Federation has demanded such contractual lecturer posts be abolished and there should be a three-tier faculty system -- Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professors.

The federation had demanded removal of cap on promotion of professors to senior grade. The government has put 40 per cent cap on promotion of professors to senior grade on the basis of performance. This provision has remained unchanged, triggering resentment among the faculty.

"The cap on promotion is illogical. Promotion has to be based on performance. It seems the government has not agreed to our demand. IIT faculties are not feeling happy about it," IIT Delhi Faculty Forum president Prof S S Murthy said.

He said the faculty federation will meet shortly to discuss the issue and decide future course of action.

The fresh notification is silent on federation's demand for starting performance incentive scheme. The federation had demanded that the IIT faculty be provided special incentives on the basis of their performance.

The government has accepted the federation's demand that assistant professors should be placed in better pay band.

The notification said the assistant professors in the centrally funded technical institutions, including IITs and IIMs, shall move to an upper pay band (PB-4) after three years of service.

If they are moved to PB-4, they will be eligible for a scale of Rs 37,400 to 67,000 per month with an Academic Grade Pay of Rs 9000.

The federation members had a meeting with HRD minister Kapil Sibal last week where they also demanded post-retirement medical facilities for IIT employees. However, there is no mention about any such scheme in the fresh notification.

"This facility is made available to all Central government employees excepting IIT staff. This demand has not been addressed again," Murthy said.

The notification further said that the age of superannuation of librarians, registrar and finance officers of these centrally funded technical institutions will be 62 years.