The DUTA must raise our collective demands

It is unfortunate that the DUTA leadership is engaged in an attempt to hoodwink the teaching community through AAD leaflets and to sabotage any serious discussion on the MHRD notification. In order to keep teachers uninformed and demobilised, the DUTA leadership has blatantly violated the decision of the last DUTA GBM held on 12.12.2008.

The DUTA GBM had decided the following “As and when the Government makes announcement on pay revision, the DUTA Executive would immediately meet to discuss the same and prepare a critique. After obtaining suggestions of the Staff Associations on the critique, the Extended Executive followed by the General Body would be held to decide on the follow up action.”

This critique has deliberately not been formulated and circulated.

The DTF is determined to defeat the anti-union game of confusing and dividing teachers by the very leadership of the union (DUTA). This would only weaken our collective body, the DUTA, vis-à-vis the Government and the Administration. It is in this spirit that the DTF would like to point out that the AAD too has listed certain issues as “anomalies”, mischievously refusing to call them demands. These “anomalies” were listed in the AAD leaflet issued one day before the EC-AC elections and restated in two AAD leaflets after the Notification. The AAD and the DUTA leadership had better learn to distinguish between unjust decisions, demands and anomalies.

These so-called “anomalies” (which are actually demands from teachers’ perspective) listed by the AAD arise from an unstated critique of the Notification. The DTF has no hesitation in accepting these as an initial basis for formalising demands and action for positive amendments to the Notification. We are told by the AAD that the DUTA leadership has taken up the following “anomalies” (demands from teachers’ perspective) with the MHRD:

• Grant of advance increments for Ph.D./M.Phil. w.e.f 1.1.2006 (instead of 1.9.2008 as they are component of basic pay; not to be treated as an allowance)
• Initial AGP of Rs. 6600/- for Assistant Professor at entry level.
• AGP of Rs. 7600/- for incumbent lecturers in Senior scale as well as for new entrants on first upward movement.
• AGP of Rs. 8700/- for incumbent Readers/Lecturer (Selection Grade) as well as for new entrants on second upward movement.
• AGP of Rs. 12000/- for all Professors.
• Academic Allowance to all teachers.
• No quota for Professor promotion in colleges.
• Raise in retirement age of Librarians to 65 years.
• Directly recruited Dy. Librarians be treated at par with Associate Professor.
• Parity with teachers to Computer Programmers/Instructors/Academic Staff in Hindi Implementation Board.
• One time option from CPF to GPF.
• Restoration of old GPF scheme for teachers and other equivalent cadres appointed since 1.1.2004.

(The list is reproduced verbatim from the last AAD leaflet circulated since 26.1.2009 in housing societies and 27.1.2009 in colleges and departments)

The DTF would like to suggest a few additions to and modifications in the list of “anomalies” (demands from teachers’ perspective) raised by the AAD:

• 1. Reduction in the number of years required for promotion to Associate Professor to a total of 9 / 10 /11 years.
• 2. Introduction of assured promotion to Professor’s grade in colleges and departments for all teachers, with or without Ph.D, which was won during the last pay revision and lost in October 2000 when the AAD Chairman Dr. S.S. Rathi was the DUTA President. The creation of a maximum of one post of Professor per department or 10% of the sanctioned posts of Associate Professor in colleges does not constitute personal promotion. These new posts would be open to selection, whether from amongst eligible internal candidates or all applicants.
• 3. Removal of the distinction between directly recruited and promoted Associate Professors and Professors.
• 4. The enhancement of remuneration of Guest Faculty to Rs. 1000 per lecture as recommended by the PRC.
• 5. Removal of the restriction of “Ph.D in the relevant discipline” for increments and promotional entitlements. This is a bureaucratic and anti-academic stipulation that is against “interdisciplinarity” which the Government itself mindlessly repeats as a necessity.
• 6. Advance increments for NET as recommended by the PRC.
• 7. Research Promotion Grant of Rs. 2 lakhs / Rs. 5 lakhs as recommended by the PRC.
• 8. Advancing all promotional benefits of the last pay revision to 1.1.1996.

The DTF calls upon the DUTA leadership to unite the teaching community by focusing on common demands and challenge the Government to meet its responsibility toward education by creating conditions helpful to attracting talent. Instead of honouring the requisition for a GBM on the MHRD notification signed by 1500 teachers who could contact one another at a short notice, the AAD has chosen to accuse the signatories of being teachers misled by Amar Deo Sharma. It was the refusal by the DUTA President to prepare a critique and convene a GBM that compelled teachers to submit a requisition. Rather than dwelling on the probable reasons for the refusal, the DTF appeals to the DUTA leadership to focus on charting out an effective course of action on the basis of collectively decided demands. There cannot be any excuse for not formulating collective demands and an action programme to back those demands.

We call upon teachers to hold Staff Association meetings and send their resolutions to the DUTA Extended Executive meeting scheduled for 2 February as well as to attend the DUTA GBM on 5 February in large numbers.

Download leaflet here: Leaflet 28.1.2009.

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