 Early Times Report
Jammu, Oct 15: Castigating the state government for paying no heed to the grievances of School, College and Polytechnic lecturers engaged on academic arrangement basis, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) staged a protest demonstration.
According to press release, Harshdev Singh said that the highly qualified educated unemployed youth in the State were treated like mere expendables. He said that under employment and unemployment problem were homologous which has been a root cause of outrage and embitterment among the youth. He added that it could explode any moment like a catastrophe and cause irreparable damages. Expressing solidarity with the College, School and Polytechnic lecturers engaged on contract / academic arrangement basis and who included PhDs, M Phils, Double post graduates etc., he regretted that such highly qualified youth were being paid Rs. 7,000/- per month in Higher Secondary schools and Polytechnics where as Rs. 8,000/- in colleges which had not been revised for the last more than 12 years.
He said that they were oppressed like bonded labourers whose honorarium was grossly meagre in proportion to the quantum of work assigned to them. Seeking a thorough review of the plight of teaching fraternity, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh sought intervention of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to take serious cognizance of the issue.
He reiterated his demand of enhancement in the honorarium of all such the contractual/ academic arrangement lecturers who were being made to work for paltry salary as against around Rs. 45,000/- being paid to their regular compeers and sought hike in the emoluments to at least Rs. 20,000/- as the existing rates had not been revised since 2004.
Harsh Dev Singh divulged that several lecturers engaged on academic arrangement in hilly and remote areas had shown reluctance to join services in view of negligible emoluments offered to them with the result that the majority of educational institutions including Schools, Colleges and Polytechnics had become defunct and staff deficient.
Balwant Singh Mankotia and Mr. Yash Paul Kundal while flaying the departments of School, Higher and Technical education for turning a blind eye over the aspirations of the contractual lecturers despite several assurances, held them squarely responsible for aggravating the crisis.
Prominent among who spoke on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Naresh Chib, Gagan Partap, Shyam Gorkha, Nirmal Kishore, Ravinder Billouria, Praduman Singh, Udhayveer, Ravinder Jamwal, K.K. Sharma, Rajesh Gondhi, Vinod Kumar, Sangeeta Sambyal, Balvinder Kour, Surinder, Latif Ahmed, Asif Bhat, Naveen Bhat, Anu Raina, Asha Pathania, Yograj, Abhi Manyu Sharma, S. Gurjeet Singh, Arjun Singh besides others. |
