Mangalore, February 17: Guest lecturers of the Government First Grade Colleges across the state including Dakshina Kannada launched an indefinite agitation on Thursday in support of their various demands.
Under the banner of the 'Federation of Government First Grade College Guest Lecturers' they boycotted the classes at all degree colleges across Karnataka.
Although, all the first grade colleges are running despite the boycott, students have been missing many classes in most of the colleges in the district.
In a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa and submitted to Deputy Commissioner Subodh Yadav at his office here in the morning, the lecturers demanded removal of wage disparity and revision of wages as per the guidelines of the University Grants Commission.
The agitators urged the Government to pay their salaries every month and clear their salary dues at the earliest. Demanding that they should be given priority at the time of making appointments for the lecturers' posts under the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), the guest lecturers said they should not be troubled and their services should be continued until they are regularised in the posts.
State Govt's strange achievement!
A state government advertisement pertaining to achievements in higher education, released 18 months after the first BJP government came to power in Karnataka, has made a strange claim. It pertains to the salaries of 4,972 guest lecturers in government colleges across Karnataka. The advertisement states guest lecturers are paid Rs 10,000 per month.
But the Federation has termed the claim of advertisement as an apparent lie.
"We are getting Rs 5,000 per month and that too, only for nine months. This amount is paid to us in lump sum at the end of the year," says Vanith Kumar, state secretary of the federation.
Guest lecturers are frustrated by this continued apathy of the state government to our demands and hence the Federation has decided to draw the attention of the CM and the higher education minister to the plight by submitting memorandums through the respective Deputy Commissioners, he said.
Vanith noted that guest lecturers faced many problems and these were compounded by misleading advertisements released by the higher education department in the name of achievements of the state government. "Even V S Acharya, minister for higher education who assured that our problems would be addressed when the guest lecturers staged an indefinite dharna, has not reverted with a concrete plan of action," he said.
Other demands that the Federation is focusing on include reminding the state government to honour its word of regularising the services of guest lecturers who have been serving since 2005. The state government, as per UGC norms, should increase the wages of guest lecturers to Rs 20,000 per month and pay it each month too. The higher education department must pay the guest lecturers Rs 10,000 from April 2010 as claimed by them in the advertisement, the federation demanded.
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