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| Omar Abdullah and striking contractual lecturers | | 5th day of official apathy and indifference | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 3: The indefinite hunger strike by contractual lecturers continued for the 5th consecutive day in Srinagar and so did the indifference of the state government towards their plight.
Class work in various colleges has suffered immensely because of the continuing strike by the contractual lecturers. The striking lecturers are demanding that their remunerations be increased, their services be given due weigh tage when the posts they have been working at are finally filled through a bona fide recruitment process.
Interestingly, the striking contractual college teachers have been claiming that they are made to take more classes daily in contrast to their regular counterparts in the colleges where they work and despite the extra effort, they are not paid even half as much as the regular college teachers.
The universal principle of same wage for same work has been fundamentally overlooked by the state government in this case. There are instances where a person has been working as a contractual college teacher for nearly eight years, of course with the mandatory breaks those are given to such services in order to address the legal necessity of depriving these teachers from claiming the benefit of continuity of service.
Batches of contractual college teachers are this time sitting on indefinite strike in Srinagar under the extreme summer heat. For the last two days many of the striking college teachers have fainted because of dehydration and they had to be carried to the hospital in semi conscious state by their colleagues and family members. It is a glaring example of government's arrogance and callousness.
Aren't the striking college teachers our own children? Aren't they part of the same society to which everyone of us including those who have been entrusted with the noble duty of governance by God Almighty belong? Yes, it is quite possible that none of the striking contractual college teachers belongs to the family of a powerful bureaucrat or a minister. Had that been the case, the influential parent would have ensured that the ultimate situation of his son/daughter taking to the critical course of an indefinite strike did not arise.
Parents of students in various colleges have been complaining that their children are forced to waste time and loiter around in and outside the colleges as there is no staff to take classes and complete syllabi in these educational institutions.
The policy of adhocism has already played havoc with most of our systems and institutions in the state and the educational system is no exception to this general rule. Everybody in power has always tried to push the dust under the carpet so that somebody else is bothered with clearing the proverbial Augean Stables.
The fact that the contractual lecturers are being engaged with such 'regularity' proves that the posts on which they serve, in whatever capacity, exist and have fallen due to be filled up by a regular process of recruitment since long. Why are these posts continued year after year without being properly advertised and filled up? What will happen to the careers of those contractual college teachers who have been working and discharging their duties in the colleges and might have already reached the upper age limit fixed for permanent appointments to government jobs?
The situation is quite volatile on this front. It is fraught with serious consequences if we continue to turn a blind eye towards the plight of the striking contractual college teachers. We should not forget the tragic fact that frustrations like these in our youth in the past have brought catastrophes to the state which our brave security forces are still battling.
To ask anybody other than state Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah to take the call in this regard would be asking for too much. Yes, the Chief Minister has the capacity to take the final call in this regard and come to the rescue of the striking contractual college teachers.
It is not argued that the government must succumb to any unfair demand, but why cannot the Chief Minister go personally and ask the contractual teachers to defer their agitation and give them a timeframe during which their genuine problems would be solved?
Omar would be doing exactly what a responsible head of the family does when an angry son or a daughter refuses to eat food in protest. Doing this would add grace to the Chief Minister's image. It would be seen as a sign of strength and flexibility which are the two most essential attributes of a powerful, benevolent ruler. Would his advisors allow Omar Abdullah to drive the small distance from his home to the venue where the striking college teachers are fainting and falling without anybody even looking at them? |
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