The Punjab Cabinet on Friday gave it the approval to implement recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission for teachers of universities and government colleges. Bhagwant Mann had on Monday announced that his government will implement recommendations of the Pay Commission in colleges and universities of the state. A statement said acceding to a long-pending demand of teachers, the Cabinet gave its nod to revise their pay scales with effect from January 15, 2016. It will be implemented from October 1 this year. This decision will benefit all teachers and other employees working in the equivalent cadre in state universities, government colleges and government-aided private colleges.

In another decision aimed at overcoming a shortage of teaching faculty in the colleges, the Cabinet gave the go-ahead to allow government colleges to appoint visiting resource persons from amongst retired faculty of colleges and universities, who are qualified as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) norms. The visiting resource persons will be hired from amongst retired faculty members up to the age of 70 years and will be paid an honorarium per session, subject to the maximum of Rs 30,000 per month. This arrangement will be made till the process of regular recruitment against the vacant posts is completed.

In another initiative aimed at improving the standards of higher education, the Cabinet gave the approval to enhance the remunerations of the guest faculty working in the government colleges of the state to a minimum of Rs 33,600 per month for both qualified and unqualified teachers, said the statement. In another decision, the Cabinet decided to do away with the Guardians of Governance scheme, which was launched by the Amarinder Singh-led government.

"Considering the unsatisfactory performance of previous years in monitoring the assigned schemes of few departments, the Cabinet decided to do away with the Guardians of Governance scheme in the state in larger public interest," the statement said. The scheme was launched in 2017 by the Punjab government with the objective of monitoring the schemes of a few departments.