Amritsar, 5 Dec, 2016 (Punjab Post Bureau) – The senior Professors of the University have taken a serious note of the news item published in the newspapers in which the GNDUTA (Guru Nanak Dev University Teachers Association) has made an attempt to put baseless allegations against Prof. A.S. Brar, Vice-Chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University. The association has raised this issue when the election of GNDUTA is going to be held on December 7, 2016. So the association is trying to divert the attention of the teaching community from the pertinent issues of the teachers in which they have failed to resolve during the last five years consecutively being in power. Now they want to win elections on the basis of the issues which have nothing to do with welfare of the teachers. They have alleged that Prof. Brar is drawing both salary as well as pension being Vice-Chancellor of the University for which they have moved to the high court while the Vice-Chancellor has already clarified on this issue in a meeting of Heads and Deans in which they were present.
It is to be mentioned here that the Vice-Chancellor is appointed on contractual basis and his appointment cannot be considered as re-employment. The terms and conditions for the appointment of Vice-Chancellor are notified by the Chancellor and as per GNDU ACT passed by the State Assembly and therefore, Vice-Chancellor has no role in fixation of salary and other allowances. Previous Vice-Chancellor’s of the Guru Nanak Dev University have also got total salary plus pension benefits. All the Vice-Chancellors who were in pension system, got total salary plus pension benefits. Therefore it is totally misleading that the present Vice-Chancellor is drawing extra benefits. Even the Vice-Chancellors of other Universities namely, Punjabi University, Patiala, Panjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana and Punjab Technical University have drawn pension alongwith full salary during their tenure as Vice-Chancellor.
The attention of GNDUTA is also diverted to the meeting of executive Council of National Law University, Delhi chaired by Hon’ble Chief Justice, Delhi High Court, New Delhi held on July 25, 2009. It was approved in this meeting that to attract competent and senior faculty members fixation of pay of the pensioners re-employed in National Law University, Delhi who are getting pension from other Govt. Departments, Organisations, Autonomous bodies must get salary plus pension. They have also quoted WP(C) no. 2356/2002 dated 5/12/2008 which reads as under “the pensioners who joins the University after retirement and are drawing pension from their previous employer, the pension so drawn may not be deducted from the salary paid to such pensioner”. In the light of above judgement the executive council resolved that the pension drawn from the previous employment will not be deducted from the salary of the faculty member of the employees in the University.
It is further mentioned that the Vice-Chancellor has brought overall transformation in the University working and has taken some tough administrative decisions which are not being digested to few faculty members of the University who are misusing the platform of GNDUTA to fight their personal ends rather than the welfare of the teaching community in general for which GNDUTA was created. So we appeal to all the faculty members that they should react to the malicious propaganda being carried out by the GNDUTA which is tarnishing the image of the University.
The prominent among the signatories includes, Prof. T.S. Banipal, Prof. Amarjit Singh Sidhu, Prof. N.S. Tung, Prof. Jagrup Singh Sekhon, Dr. K.S. Kahlon, Prof. Kuldip Kaur, Prof. Paramjit Nanda, Prof. Avinash Nagpal, Prof. Palwinder Singh, Prof. Rakesh Mahajan, Prof Kuldip Singh and Prof. Anish Dua.