New salary payment system for state university staff in Bengal to be finalised tomorrow

Kolkata, Oct 03 (IANS) The West Bengal government will finalise implementation of the changed system of salary payment for the teaching and non-teaching staff of state universities in the state on Wednesday at a special meeting with the finance officers of these universities.

“On September 20 we had a similar meeting with the finance officers of state universities and there was a proposal to bring the teaching and non-teaching staff under the human resource management system (HRMS).

“In that meeting the views of the finance officers were also sought. Now, in all probability, the final blueprint for bringing the teaching and non-teaching staff under HRMS will be finalised at the meeting on Wednesday,” said a senior official of the state education department.

Once the teaching and non-teaching staff is brought under the HRMS, their salary will be directly credited to their accounts.

In the current system, the state government transfers the funds for salary payments to the accounts of the state universities concerned and then the latter pay salaries to their teaching and non-teaching staff.

In the new system, the drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) for these state universities will be bureaucratic representatives from the state’s higher education department, which will virtually end the financial autonomy of the state universities.

Apprehensions about the end of financial autonomy for the state universities have been brewing for quite some time following the recent threat by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to stop the funding to those state universities which operate as per the directives of the Governor CV Ananda Bose, who is also the Chancellor of these state universities.

Different teachers’ associations have threatened to go to court in case there is any attempt by the state higher education department to end the financial autonomy of the state universities by introducing the HRMS.