CSIR Grievance Cell Flooded with Messages About Stipends Delay

The CSIR Grievance Cell which was established earlier this month is flooded with distress emails and messages from students across the country due to delay in their stipend. The research fellows who are attached to any of the CSIR laboratories- Council of Scientific and Industrial Research can directly share their issues and grievances through the Grievance Cell.

Matters relating to Delays and the non-revision in payments of stipends that came into effect in January this year is one of the most common complaints of the cells. Aside from this the cell also got complaints at their respective laboratories about the performance & evaluation of students. One of the CSIR fellows from a Telangana-based CSIR laboratory had written at least five emails and made several efforts to call through the helpline. But so far, his grievance has not received any favourable reaction and his calls were also unanswered. The central financing agency has also announced that it will slash students housing and rental benefits (HRAs) from the recent revision which has caused agitation among the CSIR fellows.

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Some students even complained about the latest stipend which only Rs 2,500 as the HRA, which is way low as per living standards in Pune city.
Until 2018, the HRA paid to students was 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent for tier-I, tier-II and tier-III cities, respectively. However, the authority has decided to slash down the HRA.

A student from Pune, who is an SRF, said he received his last stipend in January before the revision of the pay scale. He also said that he took the matter to the grievance cell and hoped that the matter would be addressed without any further delays. The cell is now taking cases on institutions bases which is an extremely time-consuming & cumbersome task as per the students who have approached the cell in their initial days.