After more than a month-long protest and token fasting for a day to protest the (modified) Sixth Pay Commission package, the faculty members of premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) appear to have resigned to implement the new pay structure with a few tweaks.
“We have accepted the pay package for now,” confirmed a professor from IIT Bombay who did not wish to be named. The IIT-Delhi faculty forum decided to accept the pay last week after an assurance from the ministry of human resources that the pay structure norms could be relaxed.
Other IITs, too, are in the process of accepting the pay structure. B Sastry, president of IIT Kharagpur Faculty Association, said, “The debate is still on. One view is that IITs will postpone the implementation of the revised pay scale till the IIT Council meeting. Another view is that IITs should accept it now. We are waiting for the AIIITFF to communicate their opinion on this.”
M Thenmozhi, professor at IIT Madras and president of All India IIT Faculty Federation (AIIITFF) told Business Standard, “We are waiting for the IIT Council meeting on October 19 when we would discuss some of the pending issues. After that we would implement the revised pay scheme, with a few changes that would be cleared by the Council. Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal has asked the Council to reconsider some of the IIT faculty issues like doing away with 40 per cent cap on promotions of assistant professors, 10 per cent cap on contractual assistant professorship, and Rs 500 increase in annual gross pay (AGP) of associate professors and professors.”
However, the issue of flexible cadre - which allows deserving candidates to move up the ranks, remains unresolved. The faculty was protesting about the 40 per cent cap on promotion of professors to senior grade and provision of contractual appointment at entry level.
“The 40 per cent cap on promotion of professors to senior grade is a major one. We are also concerned that with the number of students set to increase by 54 per cent in the next three years owing to the OBC and general intake, we will find it difficult to hire required faculty members,” said a faculty member.
Unlike the larger and older IITs, where the mandated faculty strength is 500-600, the newer ones have been sanctioned a strength of 60 faculty members. Yet, according to, the MHRD’s efforts to “micro-manage total number of faculty members in each cadre” will affect the productivity of IITs.
The IITs had also put before the ministry a demand for scholastic pay of Rs 15,000 per month, similar to that at DRDO, which was not addressed fully by the government.
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