A day after the state government announced to implement the UGC pay scales as per the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, the agitating teachers, unsatisfied with the new Government Resolution held an emergency meeting on Thursday. At the meeting, the Gujarat State Federation of University and College Teachers Association decided to intensify its agitation programmes (currently on hold) from Nov 18.

Federation president Prof K S Shastri said: “Almost 80 percent of the UGC provisions have been ignored in the new GR. Various schemes for incentives, like Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) for teacher as well as the chapter for special increments have been totally ignored. Moreover, the negative provision of application of service rules of the state government, which has been strongly resented by all teachers, remains unchanged.”

According to the fresh GR, apart from increase in the salary slabs of university and college teachers, the nomenclature of the designation would also be changed and the teachers would be allowed to claim travel allowances along with other incentives.

Teachers, however, alleged a close study of the GR shows that while the initial demands were as per the UGC recommendations, the remaining clauses were drafted as per earlier decision. “In the 12-page GR, the first page is that of UGC recommendation while the remaining pages are those of the older GR issued on October 6. The sentences and words used in the GR are dubious and in favour of the government,” said I I Pandya, President of Baroda University Teachers Association (BUTA), MSU.