Action to be taken against engineering colleges for violating pay scales: AICTE

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) gave approval for some new norms for granting approvals to technical institutions in a recent meeting and as per the new norms, the admission process may be suspended and technical institutions may reduce the intake due to the non-adherence to pay scales for teachers and student- faculty ratio. There are over 3,000 AICTE-registered engineering institutes.

The decision is taken at such a time when the faculty members at various central universities including the DU, the JNU and the AMU are protesting against the non-adherence to pay scales and are demanding that recommendations of UGC's seventh pay review committee be made public.

A senior official fromAICTE stated that the institutions not adhering to pay scales or qualifications prescribed for teaching staff for more than 12 months and not maintaining prescribed faculty-student ratio shall be liable to punitive actions including suspension of approval for supernumerary seats and reduction in approved intake. He further added that the council may also decide to suspend admission in the respective courses for one academic year and withdraw approval of the course or of the institution altogether.

Penal action may also be initiated against technical institutions by the AICTE for not disbursing the salary of the faculty and other staffers regularly and not adhering to timings for the colleges that operate in two shifts. The second shift has to be run as per the declared timing -- from 1 pm to 9 pm -- with 50 per cent additional faculty, which would be subject to surprise inspection. Any violation of timing and of number of faculty members may lead to closure of the course, official said.