–Sufficient budgetary allocations promised in next fiscal year so that staff is paid all due allowances
ISLAMABAD: Teachers and non-teaching staff of Federal Government Colleges (FGC) are facing an acute shortage of funds to pay their rent for housing.
According to an official source, the budget allocation disbursed to landlords whose houses are on public pool for government employees is set annually whereas the FG colleges, which were already running in deficit, have received a reduced amount this year as compared to the previous fiscal year.
Funds allocated to meet the rental ceiling of all 10 FC colleges for the fiscal year 2018-19 was Rs96,765,000, whereas it was drastically reduced to Rs81,920,000 for 2019-20.
Islamabad Model Postgraduate College H-8 faced 37.3 per cent reduction in the allocation of rental ceiling which is the highest among all the FG Colleges. The college received Rs13,237,000 during 2019-20 while it received Rs18,177,000 during 2018-19).
Similarly, Islamabad Model College for Boys F-10/4 faced the 27.1 per cent reduction and Islamabad Model College for Boys H-9 a 25.6 per cent reduction in the allocated budget of rental ceiling.
The reductions have resulted in chaos as the funds were exhausted in just six months and not a penny was available for many teachers beyond December 2019.
However, Islamabad Model Colleges (IMC) did not face any reductions. In fact, all 20 of them received a little more than the previous year. They received Rs178,784,000 during the year 2018-19 and Rs184,453,000 in 2019-20.
“The recent COVID-19 situation has brought this issue to an all time low; landlords are now pushing the tenants to either vacate the houses or pay them from personal resources. There is no one to listen to our miserable plight,” complained Professor Amjad Awan.
Another female teacher on the condition of anonymity shed her frustration by saying that the first thing a civilised state must think of is making sure people have a roof over their heads and food on their plate.
“Although the COVID-19 outbreak at the dawn of the new year left everyone in a state of inertia, food and shelter can hardly be compromised. We read in the media that a large number of states have rescued people amid the pandemic. But we don’t know how to handle this situation; nobody is allowed to move, no offices are functional,” she said.
Arshad Ali, a lecturer whose house owner is pressing hard for rent told that his rent had not been paid by the concerned authorities for over four months and he cannot utilise his own pocket as he has to feed his family.
“The authorities should look into the miseries of teachers who are custodians of the future generations,” he added.
Professor Tahir Mahmood, a representative of the Federal Government College Teachers Association (FGCTA) urged the authorities to immediately release funds needed to solve the issue.
“Of course, the Finance Division can help right away by utilising the emergency relief funds without any unnecessary formalities and red tape procedures. On the other hand, enough funds would be allocated to FG colleges in the coming budget to make up the shortage of funds in the current fiscal year,” he added.
When contacted, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training Joint Secretary Syed Umair Javed said that the Finance Division had allocated less budget for the year 2019-20 as there is a shortfall of Rs1 billion whereas a supplementary grant was also not given.
“However, we will make efforts to have sufficient budgetary allocations for the coming year so that the staff is paid all due allowances,” he assured.
