IITs to issue pay order with options form

Even as the standoff between the protesting IIT faculty and the government over pay structure continues,the IITs will next week issue....

Even as the standoff between the protesting IIT faculty and the government over pay structure continues,the IITs will next week issue the pay order notified by the HRD Ministry followed by Option Forms asking the faculty to either approve or reject the new pay scale. This is despite the fact that the IIT directors have begun negotiations with the All India IIT Faculty Federation AIIITFF to resolve the deadlock.

Since the pay notification came in August and was revised this month,the IITs are bound to issue these orders at the individual level. The formal approval of the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the IIT concerned is required before this pay order is issued by an IIT. While two IITs have already issued these orders,the others will follow by next week, said an IIT director.

The faculty has to either accept the new pay order or reject it,opting to stay at the older pay scale,within three months of the orders being put out by the IIT. In the current scenario,we can only hope that at least some members will approve the new order to avail higher salaries right away, the director added.

Meanwhile,a meeting of the IIT faculty and directors,to resolve the standoff over the pay structure,scheduled for Friday had to be cancelled as all directors were not available. There is time till October 1 to meet the directors and see if some kind of resolution can be arrived at. Otherwise the AIIITFF will consider other modes of protest, an IIT faculty member said.

Faculty at all the seven IITs went on a hunger strike Thursday to protest the pay structure being offered to them by the HRD Ministry.

On Friday,HRD Minister Kapil Sibal reiterated that his ministry was ready for a dialogue on the issue and that is ministrty had no intention of interfering in the functioning of IITs.

The issue is not one of autonomy or interference. The issue is only about money. An IAS officer starts at a basic pay of Rs 21,000 while at an IIT we have notified an entry-level basic pay of Rs 26,000 and five increments as per the IITs prerogative. So where is the question of interference? the minister asked. He added that he would soon be meeting representatives of IITS,IIMs and other institutes to ask them to propose their roadmap for autonomy in terms of a five-year vision.