The regional office of the All India Council for Technical Education has sought details of the appointment order issued to a faculty in Vivekanandha College of Engineering for Women and its bank statement of accounts.
The council has called for “the bank statement of accounts of the college/Trust showing debit entry for paying salary to faculty members”.
The letter is a follow up to the death of a faculty S. Ravi, an assistant professor, who allegedly committed suicide in March 2020 as he had been in debt and the college had not paid him his due salary. The case was taken up by the National Human Rights Commission and the Department of Higher Education had also instituted an inquiry into the issue.
The recent letter from the council follows a complaint by K.M. Karthik, president of All India Private College Employees’ Union, who alleged that the college had not paid the faculty as per the AICTE norms.
In another related issue, the Directorate of Technical Education had, a few weeks ago, sent a letter to Anna University urging it to ensure that colleges paid AICTE stipulated salaries to their faculty and also return their original certificates after scrutiny.
Mr. Karthik said his complaint was based on perusal of the college’s statement of accounts with respect to the salary paid to the faculty. The council had received several complaints from faculty in the college regarding low salaries from the college, M. Sundaresan, AICTE’s regional officer, stated in his letter to the college dated Oct. 3.
(Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State’s health helpline 104 and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050)
