Government accepts pay parity demand of AIIMS faculty

The union cabinet, at its meeting held on Tuesday, approved the decision to grant parity in salary of the faculty of autonomous medical colleges like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi and the Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Science, Shillong, with their counterparts in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), according to health ministry sources.

Though the revised pay scales would be applicable from January 2006, allowances would be effective from August 2008.

Along with the doctors-cum-teachers at AIIMS and PGIMER, faculties of other institutes that would be covered under the decision include those of the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry; the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore; and the Northeastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Shillong.

The pay parity was a long-pending demand of the AIIMS faculty, who claimed that being doctors they were putting in more work than the faculty of the other premier institutes.

The health ministry's pay parity proposal had earlier been objected to by the finance ministry.

The pay revision would mean that 40 per cent of medical professors will now be covered under the scales for additional secretary. These had earlier been limited to 25 per cent. The professors can now also look forward to faster promotions.