Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government has decided to recover excess salary paid to ineligible engineering teachers.
The action is being taken as per the instructions of the Supreme Court and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
In all 137 teachers who don't meet the qualification norms set by the University Grants Commission and the All-India Council for Technical Education will be affected by the latest order to recover pay disproportionate to their qualifications. They are currently employed in the engineering colleges run by the Institute of Human Resources Development (IHRD), an autonomous educational institution established by the Government of Kerala.
Earlier, the state government had demoted teachers at government engineering colleges citing the same reason.
The salaries of government polytechnic teachers who were promoted after attaining more qualifications were so far fixed by considering their earlier service too. However, the government found out that those who didn’t clear the National Eligibility Test (NET) or lacked PhD qualification were drawing salaries as per the UGC guidelines.
The teachers of non-engineering subjects who do not have UGC qualifications too would be demoted to their previous posts and their excess salary would be recovered.
Why the action now
A recent CAG report stated that nearly 961 teachers in engineering colleges in Kerala are unqualified. The CAG found that 93 teachers in government engineering colleges, 49 in government-aided colleges, 62 in government-controlled self-financing colleges, 750 in self-financing colleges and seven in central self-financing colleges in Kerala were unqualified. They were apparently appointed in violation of the existing norms.
The teachers of government-aided and government-controlled self-financing colleges have received huge sums of money as salary through promotion posts created in violation of rules, the report further stated.
The CAG submitted the report to the Kerala government and the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, citing that the above-mentioned 961 teachers are unqualified. All the colleges where they are employed are affiliated to the said Technological University, which is also known as the Kerala Technological University.
In view of the CAG report, the Technological University registrar officially asked all college principals to provide information regarding the qualification of engineering college teachers. Subsequently, the state government order to recover excess salary paid to them was issued.