Pay revision: Junior specialists, asst profs cry foul

NEW DELHI: The sixth pay commission has drastically improved the pay scales of government employees, but assistant professors and junior specialists in various government hospitals are an unhappy lot. They are now thinking of "going beyond representations'' to draw the government's attention to the anomalies. Specialist and assistant professors didn't welcome the move, as post revision of the pay scale, they'll draw salary eight per cent less than the senior residents, who are at least five years junior to them. Also, seniority in the government sector is inter-linked to the scale process, their students now stand the chance of becoming senior to them. Adding to their woes is the government's move to increase the pay scale of junior specialist on ad-hoc basis, as junior specialists are getting less than senior residents and also specialists on ad-hoc basis. "It is just not fair. As per the residency scheme of the government of India, senior residents are supposed to get 87.5 per cent of assistant professor or junior specialists' basic pay. Hence, the emoluments of the first year junior specialist have always been 17.25 per cent higher than that of a third year senior resident. But now we are getting Rs 4,000-5000 less then them,'' said an assistant professor with Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) and associated hospitals. The faculty association of MAMC and other medical colleges in the capital have made representations to the health ministry regarding the disparity in the pay scales. "We have written to the ministry to clear the anomaly and increase the salary of assistant professors and junior specialists as per the government rules. But it will take time and our doctors are getting restless. But it cannot happen that senior residents will continue to draw salary more than specialist, who are selected through UPSC. We are waiting for the government's response,'' said Dr AK Aggarwal, dean, MAMC. Specialists say that the sixth pay commission gave additional non-practising allowance (NPA), which is already included in the salary, to the senior residents and also gave dearness allowance on NPA. "The senior residents are getting more salary as they are getting DA on NPA and additional NPA which we specialists are not getting,'' said a junior specialist. Junior specialists are elated about the fact that senior residents are included in the regular scheme, but they say that the new scales have created a huge difference between the two categories of doctors. "We are happy for senior residents. But in which organization a senior person is paid less than his juniors? Moreover, if these senior residents become specialist after clearing UPSC, they will get high pay scale and will be considered senior to us. We want this disparity to be corrected at the earliest,'' said another doctor from Lady Hardinge Medical College.