VC marks teachers absent for turning up late

CHENNAI: Shocked at the casual manner in which evaluation officials arrived late for duty, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Madras, G Thiruvasagam, ordered officials to mark all such teachers absent for the day on Wednesday.However, the action was soon revoked following a representation made to the VC by the teachers, who said that this would not be repeated.The VC who made an inspection at Queen Marys College, where answer scripts of UG courses were being evaluated, found that many of the teachers were absent in the hall. The reporting time was fixed at 9 am. Officials said each teacher was paid a dearness allowance of `120 per day if from Chennai and `180 per day if they were from outside. Further, outstation teachers were also paid a travel allowance of `440 per day apart from `9 for each UG script evaluated. When contacted, the VC said a half-hour delay could be excused, but the teachers arrived almost one-and-a-half hours late. He said he waited in the premises till 11.30 am before initiating the action.