AIIMS faculty set to receive salary on par with IITs, IIMs

Salary of the faculty of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and four other medical institutes of excellence will be at par with those offered in IITs and IIMs. A decision in this regard was taken by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday. From this parity of pay scales, as much as five reputed medical institutes’ staffs are supposed to get pay benefits. 

AIIMS faculty was pressing the government hard for this step and it’s been a long-pending demand. AIIMS faculty had been claimed that they worked more the faculties of the other institutes of excellence that seems realistic given the fact that the AIIMS faculty comprise of doctors who have to devote time teaching and tending patients making their job more time consuming than the other highly-paid faculties in those premier institutes.  

Earlier, the Finance Ministry did raise few objections to the demands of the Health Ministry’s pay parity proposal. The matter was later debated at a previous Cabinet meeting, and thereafter, the Cabinet Secretary was forced to look into it.

With this pay revision, 40 percent of medical professors will now get the scales of Additional Secretary alongside faster promotions. Earlier, the plan was restricted to 25 per cent of medical professors. With this hike, the Health Ministry expects the abolition of poaching of faculty by private hospitals and medical colleges.

About 2,400 faculty members of five medical institutes are set to derive benefit out of the pay revision. An additional burden of Rs 91 crore is expected to the government exchequer. The new salaries will be applicable from January 1, 2006, while allowances will be given with effect from August 1, 2008.

A professor will now get Rs 62,100 together with academic grade pay, perks and dearness allowance against the existing basic salary of Rs 18,400. Against the existing basic pay of Rs 16,400, an additional professor will now get Rs 55,500 (all perks included) against the existing basic pay of Rs 16,400.