RAWALPINDI, April 15: The Punjab government has stopped giving Special Additional Allowance (SAA) to about 100 lecturers appointed on contract in eight girls degree colleges in 1999, some of the teachers told Dawn.

According to the terms of the contract, the lecturers were to be paid Rs775 per month as the special allowance. However, about two months ago, the allowance was stopped by the accountant general Punjab on the grounds that contractual employees were not civil servants and, therefore, not entitled to the facility.

The accountant general has also directed the district accounts officer, Rawalpindi, to take steps for the recovery of the amount paid to the lecturers during the last four years.

The accounts officer, through a letter, has asked the heads of different institutions to devise a strategy to recover the amount.

If the recovery drive is launched, each of the lecturer will have to pay about Rs40,000.

The district accounts office, when contacted, said the move was taken on the directives of the accountant general Punjab.

They are contractual employees and the rules of civil servants do not apply to them. Therefore, they are not entitled to Additional Special Allowance, Assistant Accounts Officer Zaheer said while talking to this reporter. He said the heads of colleges had been informed, but the recovery campaign was yet to start.

Meanwhile, the move has sent shock waves across the teaching community. “We have been appointed purely on contract basis. We are paid fixed salaries with no fringe benefits. The allowances promised to us in the contract are also withdrawn without any reason. This is discrimination with the contractual lecturers,” Faiza Naeem, a lecturer, said.

The lecturers have expressed concern over the government plan to withdraw the special allowance, which, they claim, is paid to all employees, whether contractual or permanent. “Apart from this, we are not entitled to any annual increment or promotion,” they said. They also called for regularization of their services with all allowances.

On the other hand, Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association has also expressed concern over the move.

The association plans to approach the higher authorities to stop, what it terms, discrimination with the lecturers.