HYDERABAD: Terming the ongoing agitation by contract lecturers of Junior Colleges unfair, Deputy Chief Minister Kadiyam Srihari has requested the agitating contract lecturers to report for duty before January 12 as the Government was positively inclined towards their demands.
The Government would not hesitate to take action as per the rules for unauthorised absence and that would go against their regularisation of service in future. “Please do not make yourself ineligible,” the Minister said here on Tuesday.
At a time when the final examinations were approaching, the junior lecturers should focus more on guiding the students, he said.
Court stay
Suspecting political instigation behind the strike, Mr. Mr Srihari recalled that the contract lecturers in Andhra Pradesh who went on strike for 34 days demanding pay hike and regularisation of services had to call it off though the Government there did not concede their demands.
Of 3,687 contract lecturers working in Junior Colleges, some 2,000 lecturers have been on strike from December 31.
Addressing the media here on Tuesday, Mr. Srihari said the State Cabinet had already passed a resolution on February 2, 2016 for regularisation of services of contract lecturers and a GO was issued subsequently to begin the process by fixing the eligibility criteria.
The process had to be put on hold as Osmania University Students JAC went to court challenging the regularisation and obtained a stay.
Government schools
As for remuneration, government had revised the salary with 50 per cent hike from ₹18,000 to ₹27,000 a month, he said. The remuneration for Degree college contract lecturers too would be increased soon from ₹21,000 to ₹31,000.
Listing out the steps taken by the government to strengthen education in government schools and colleges in Telangana, Mr. Srihari said ₹283 crore was released for improving infrastructure and facilities in the government junior colleges. For provision of basic amenities, laboratories, CCTVs, biometric system, another ₹42 crore was released.
Over 1.73 lakh students were studying in 404 government junior colleges in the State and by next academic year, the target was to increase their strength to two lakh by improving infrastructure, faculty and facilities to make government junior colleges as model institutions, the Minister said.
