Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 23: Lambasting the State Govt for turning a deaf ear to the repeated entreaties and representations of school and college lecturers, for redressal of their genuine grievances, Harshdev Singh, chairman JKNPP and former Minister, today warned a full scale agitation against BJP-PDP coalition for the exploitation of educated and other unemployed youth of the State.
He said that with the increasing number of educated unemployed youth in the State, the Govt was exploiting the situation with the highly qualified youth being treated like bonded labourers. He said that under-employment and unemployment problem was analogous to a simmering volcano which could explode any moment and cause irreparable damages. He said that the State Govt was utilizing the services of thousands of such youth who either remained unpaid for months together or were engaged for a pittance.
Supporting the cause of the college and school 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 Rs 8,000 in colleges which had not been revised for the last more than 10 years.
Criticising Govt for its apathy Mr Singh said that their issues were being disregarded despite the fact that they are playing a very significant role in the process of imparting education in the remote area schools. He said that not only their honorarium was grossly inadequate but also quantum of work assigned to them deserved a second thought and a review.
Seeking the indulgence of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Mr Singh advocated for increase in the honorarium of the contractual, academic arrangement lecturers who were being made to work for paltry honorarium of Rs 7000 in Higher Secondary Schools as against around Rs 45,000 being paid to a regular lecturer and demanded the emoluments to be enhanced to at least Rs 20,000 as the existing rates had not been revised for the last 10-12 years since 2004. He said that several lecturers engaged on academic arrangement in hilly and remote areas had refused to join in view of negligible emoluments offered to them with the result that the majority of such schools had become defunct.
Seeking further the inclusion of lecturers under Special Provisions of Act 2010, Mr Singh lambasted the arbitrary exclusion of the said category of employees from the purview of the said act.
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