Hyderabad: College faculty under banks' pressure to cough up dues

Hyderabad: After being denied payment of salaries for the last six months faculty members of several private unaided engineering colleges and schools are at the receiving end with several banks designating them as delinquents.

According to TSTCEA President A Santhosh Kumar, the non-payment of salaries by the colleges ranges from three to nine months. This is so as several colleges did not pay salaries to the faculty much before March. Even where the salaries were paid, "An Assistant Professor was paid Rs 60,000 as per the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) norms. But, they had to give back to the managements anywhere from Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000."

Further, the AICTE, the State government, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTUH), the University Grants Commission (UGC) and other government agencies have failed the faculty members to get their dues. During the lockdown period, some colleges engaged the faculty but they were paid only meagre amounts of Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000. All this has now ended up the faculty members failing to clear their EMIs to the banks against their personal loans and credit cards.

Speaking to The Hans India, Rama Krishna, a senior faculty member working in a private engineering college in Ranga Reddy said "the banks remained silent for the first three months of the moratorium period. But, they have been pressurising to cough up at a time when we have not received our salaries for months," he added.

That apart, the bank in which the college deposits the salary has refused to extend the moratorium after June. This is because the college did not deposit the salaries for the last six months. In turn, now, the bank has rated the accounts under the delinquent category, for not clearing the dues, added K Sarma another faculty member.

Adding to this, several faculty members in another engineering college located in Ibrahimpatnam have been illegally removed, further pushing them into a debt trap, said Santosh Kumar.