PU board of finance to meet on April 10

With the Panjab University (PU) Board of Finance (BoF) meeting set to be held on Monday, the enhancement of honorarium to guest faculty and starting a handicapped allowance for disabled employees in line with a Punjab government notification are likely to come up.

PU syndicate, the varsity’s executive body, in December had approved the adoption of the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) 2019 guidelines to enhance honorarium for guest faculty. As per the UGC letter, the honorarium for the guest faculty will be increased from ₹1,000 to ₹1,500 per lecture and the monthly ceiling from ₹25,000 to ₹50,000.

The decision was approved by the vice-chancellor on December 19 and will be noted in the upcoming BoF meeting.

The handicapped allowance, to be effective from January 1, 2023, is set to be ₹1,000 per month as per a Punjab government notification in December 2022.

The BoF will also deliberate on the pay of directly recruited professors prior to January 1, 2006, as per the UGC guidelines. This will have an approximate financial liability of ₹23.38 lakh. The matter had been considered by the board of finance in their meeting in 2016. The ministry of human resource development had sent a clarification in 2020, which will now be placed in front of the BoF and the arrear will be paid after the approval.

The BoF will also deliberate on enhancing honorariums for selection, screening-cum-evaluation and inspection committees in terms with recommendations made in 2019. The honorariums were recommended to go up from ₹2,500 to ₹5,000 per day for the chancellor and V-C’s nominees. This, however, will not be paid to PU teachers and fellows. They will also discuss enhancing the honorariums paid to inspection committee experts from ₹1,500 per day to ₹3,000 per day.

The board will deliberate on increasing the mileage rate of travel by car/taxi from ₹10 per km to ₹14 per km, with tolls being paid after furnishing proof of actual spending.

The BoF will look into V-C’s recommendation of creating the position of associate dean of student welfare. An additional charge of this will be given to a varsity teacher on an honorarium of ₹3,000 per month.

The board will also consider the V-C’s recommendation to change the nomenclatures of the post of para-medical-assistant and chief medical officer in Bhai Ghanaiya Ji Institute of Health Sciences to multi-purpose health worker (female) and medical officer, respectively. The nomenclature of laboratory assistant, Dr Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences, is also expected to be changed to operation theatre assistant. These will have no financial liability.