Varsities staff not entitled to 15pc allowance: HED

LAHORE: Higher Education Department (HED) Punjab on Tuesday informed Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of public sector universities of the province that employees of the universities were not entitled to grant of 15 percent special allowance.

The HED Punjab had sought an advice from the Finance Department Punjab regarding admissibility of special allowance-2022 to the employees of autonomous bodies. “I am directed to refer to the subject cited above and to state that an advice regarding admissibility of special allowance-2022 to the employees of autonomous bodies i.e. universities has been received from Govt of the Punjab, Finance Department, vide letter No. SO (C) Misc-1/21 (Temp), dated 08.03.2023 in which it is clarified that "in the instant case, universities are autonomous bodies under the administrative control of HED.

The employees of Universities are not civil servants; hence they are not entitled to grant of 15% special allowance as per the letter of Finance Department bearing No. FD.SR.V.3-1/2021, dated 20.07.2022”, reads the HED Punjab’s note to the VCs. It is pertinent to mention that Academic Staff Associations (ASAs) of public universities, including Punjab University’s ASA (PU-ASA) had already expressed concerns over the Finance Department’s point of view and had demanded the grant of 15 percent special allowance to the employees of universities in the wake of ever-increasing inflation.

e-Rozgar Centre: Director General (E-Governance) of Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Sajid Latif along with his team visited the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) and called on Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad here Tuesday. A detailed meeting was held regarding the establishment of e-Rozgar Centre at UVAS. Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad presided over the meeting while Principal Officer Students Affairs Dr Kamran Ashraf and officials were present.

The objective is to equip students from public and private sector universities of Punjab with skills for enabling them to initiate their own businesses and startups according to Chancellor/Governor Punjab direction under the consortium on entrepreneurship.