Education minister Partha Chatterjee on Saturday asked colleges to continue paying salaries to their guest teachers from their coffers.

“It has been noticed that several colleges appointed guest teachers. They have stopped paying salaries to these teachers. The colleges should consider paying salaries to the guest teachers like they were doing before,” Chatterjee said.

Many colleges have not been paying the guest teachers their remuneration since January because of chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s announcement in August last year that the salaries of part-time, contractual and guest teachers of state-aided colleges would be enhanced and the state government would provide the funds to pay them.

The minister said the higher education department had started a process of verifying details of about 12,000 part-time contractual and guest teachers before implementing the enhanced salaries.

The process of verification has been kept on hold because of the lockdown forced by the novel coronavirus.

Chatterjee asked the colleges to clear the dues of the guest teachers in accordance with the old pay structure.

A guest teacher used to be paid between Rs 12,000 and Rs 15,000. In the revised scale, the salary will be Rs 30,000.