By Rajiv Shukla
NEW DELHI : Already hard-pressed for time, Prof G.K. Chadha, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the ambitious South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) University.

A former vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University and a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, Prof Chadha is a member of a number of committees and is the chairman of the UGC backed pay review committee of teachers and is assigned to submit the pay review recommendations by the end of August.

Apart from so many official duties, Dr Chadha has to nurse an ailing wife who is undergoing chemotherapy at the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute here.

Dr Chadha, when contacted on May 6, confirmed his appointment but refused to specify the date as to when he would join the SAARC university. He, however, said that he would "do it within a day or two." 
  
Prof. Chadha will hold the SAARC university post for two years until the university becomes functional in 2010 when a vice-chancellor would be appointed.

Prof. Chadha was selected from a panel of names submitted by India to a sub-committee of the Steering Committee. The sub-committee, comprising representatives of all the eight SAARC member-countries, was authorised by the Steering Committee to select an interim CEO to start the institution. Prof. S.K. Thorat, chairperson of the University Grants Commission, headed the sub-committee. 

AIFUCTO worried

The news of Dr Chada's appointed has rattled the office-bearers of the All India Federation of University and College Teachers' Oraganisations (AIFUCTO) who feel that SAARC varsity assignment would further delay the pay review recommendations.

AIFUCTO general secretary Asok K. Barman was non-plussed by the news but welcomed it, beguilingly though. He said he would meet Dr Chadha soon and "assess the situation."

Meanwhile the clamour for pay hike has started mounting since the declaration of Central pay review committee report on March 24 and the angst gripped top AIFUCTO leaders are getting increasingly apprehensive about the fate of the committee.

The committee constituted on September 6 last year to review the pay scales of teachers and to recommend ways and means to lure and to retain talented persons in the teaching profession, has done little so far and the acute indisposition of Dr Chadha's wife has further complicated matters.

The committee is supposed to submit its recommendation by the end of August this year but Dr Chadha had told Academics-India on April 6 that "this doesn't seem feasible and may be delayed by a few months". He enumerated a number of reasons for the possible delay, of which his wife's sickness was one of them. "At times one feels helpless before the compelling conditions," he had said.

An executive committee meeting of AIFUCTO held in Delhi on April 14 finalised the document to be submitted to the Pay Review Committee and the AIFUCTO general Secretary Asok K. Barman was prompt to send the memorandum to Dr Chadha's office on April 16.

The other members of the pay review committee are Atul Sharma, former Vice-Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar; G Padmanaban, former Director, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; Sudeep Banerjee, Chancellor, National University for Educational Planning & Administration, New Delhi and Manimala Das, Principal, Bathune College, Kolkata.

The panel will also study what needs to be done for career advancement in teaching and other related activities in order to improve quality of higher education.

According to the terms of reference notified by the UGC on September 6 last year the committee will :

• ... [It] will review implementation of the previous decision of the government/UGC under scheme of revision of pay scales approved for university and college teachers, librarians, physical education personnel and other academic staff.

• It will also evaluate extent to which earlier recommendations in relation to qualifications, service conditions and pay-scales have been implemented.

• ... [It] will also examine the present structure of emoluments and conditions of service
  ... and suggest revision in the structure, taking into account the minimum qualifications, career advancement opportunities and total packet of benefits available to them (such as superannuation benefits, medical, housing facilities, etc).

• It will examine cases of anomalies in the pay structure or career advancement opportunities for academic staff after the last pay revision and suggest remedial measures.

• The committee may initiate necessary studies and analysis in regard to the terms of reference, keeping in mind demands and requirements of universities and higher education institutions.