Sinhgad Staff Unhappy With CM's Assurance Regarding Non-Payment Of 16 Months' Salary

The professors and students of Sinhgad Institute who are suffering because of the non-payment of salaries of the professors’ for the last 16 months met the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis on February 27. The students’ exams are supposed to start from March 6. Almost 8,000 students and teachers are suffering because of the Institutes’ lackadaisical attitude.

According to The Times of India, staff members along with MLA Medha Kulkarni and two students went to meet the CM. They sought the appointment of an administrator to probe the financial transactions at the institution. Kulkarni said, “The teachers have demanded payment of dues in a lump sum, transfer of salaries into a nationalised bank and salaries by the 10th of every month,” as reported by The Times of India.

They said that the CM just wrote a letter to the Chief Secretary. They are not satisfied with the CM’s response as they know that their problems will not come to an end.

Background

Teachers of 22 engineering colleges under Pune’s Sinhgad Institutes have not been paid their salaries for more than a year. They have been protesting against the non-payment of the salaries, yet their voices fail to reach concerned ears.

“We have been paid basic salary since October 2016, that too after pleading with them several times. The dates of payment are irregular. This November’s salary has not been paid at all. We are unable to work and want our salaries immediately in full. Only then will we resume teaching,” a teacher, while protesting on December 19, 2017, told The Times of India.

They said that the basic salary makes up only 40% of the salary. Until October 2017, they were being paid only their basic wage after several requests. After that, they were not even being paid their basic salary.

Professor says

One of the professors, who served in one of Sinhgad Institute’s college in Lonavala, told The Logical Indian “I worked with the Institute for four years, and the salary was always irregular. The salary would be credited after three months or four months. After a certain point in time, they started paying our salaries once in six months.”

She says that all the professors took up the issue with the Institute once in Diwali and they assured the payment of salaries. But the catch was that they said that only the basic salary would be paid.

“We all resumed teaching because the students’ future was in jeopardy,” she further added.

Every time the authorities concerned in the Institute would say that the government did not release the fund for the students who have been studying under scholarship.

“This did not stop them from doing construction work or hold fests where they invited international celebrities,” she said.

Among all this, it is the students who have been suffering the most as they did not have regular classes.

AICTE cancels admission

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) said that the colleges, managed by Sinhgad, were put under ‘no admission’ category after the management failed to meet the February 2 deadline for depositing the dues in the bank accounts of its staff. The salaries of the staff of the 22 institutes have not been paid for over 15 months. The High Court stayed this order on February 10.

The High Court said that as the salaries were not paid for more than 15 months, they cannot enrol fresh students in any of their institutes until and unless all dues are cleared.

To rescue thousands of students from losing a year, the faculty of Sinhgad group of institutes have decided to seek permission to reopen the colleges. In a letter addressed to AICTE, Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), and the Directorate of Technical Education, Maharashtra, the agitating teaching and non-teaching staff of the institutes have requested the regulatory bodies to give them the permission to reopen the colleges and begin classes for the students.

The Logical Indian sympathises with the professors and students of the Institutes and hopes that the payment of salaries is done as soon as possible.