Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 12: Castigating the State Government for paying no heed to the plight of Polytechnic contractual lecturers engaged on academic arrangements, the activists of National Panthers Party (NPP) along with the aggrieved lecturers spearheaded by party chairman Harsh Dev Singh staged a protest demonstration seeking regularization of their services at Exhibition Ground, here today.
Expressing solidarity with the contractual lecturers of Polytechnic colleges who were sitting on strike for the last seven days, Harsh Dev said that the teaching fraternity had been rendering their services with zeal and honesty on paltry salary of Rs 7000 per month with a hope that they would be regularized to earn with dignity and honour.
Urging for the implementation of Apex Court’s decision of ‘equal pay for equal work’ in J&K, he regretted that the exploitation of the highly educated youth comprising of BEs, B.Techs and Post Graduates engaged as academic arrangements in the Polytechnic colleges on nominal wages as against handsome salary for their counterparts in regular establishment, despite the same nature of work, was highly deplorable, inhumane, discriminatory and amounted to worst form of human rights violation. He added that these contractual lecturers were rendering their services in the respective Polytechnics ranging from 5 to 25 years and several of them had ironically become over aged.
Seeking regularization of these lecturers in the Technical Education Department, Singh, revealed that with the opening of the 18 new Polytechnics, the total number of Govt Polytechnic Colleges in the State was 24 and it had been reported that 80-85% of the staff in these institutions comprised of Academic arrangements who were running various departments successfully.
He divulged that the State Government had admitted in recent Assembly session that there were 248 vacant posts of lecturers and 80 posts of demonstrators against the sanctioned 313 and 89, respectively, and the incumbents working as Academic arrangements were engaged on merit basis against these clear vacancies. He exhorted the State Govt to immediately frame a suitable regularization policy for these employees and adjust them against the clear vacancies.
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