JAMMU: Castigating the State Government for its criminal apathy towards school, college and polytechnic lecturers engaged on academic arrangements, a strong contingent of Panther Party activists along with scores of such lecturers spearheaded by Rajesh Padgotra, Provincial President JKNPP, Gagan Pratap Singh General Secretary Young Panthers, Shyam Gorkha Vice President PTU and other leaders staged a protest seeking immediate salary enhancement and regularisation of their services at Exhibition Ground here on Sunday.
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 meager in proportion to the quantum of work assigned to them. 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 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.
Gagan Pratap 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. He said that the highly apathetic approach of the government towards the miseries of these lecturers had pushed them towards starvation and other miseries.
Singh disclosed that very soon Panthers party shall lead a strong contingent of such lecturers and stage a colossal protest outside the Parliament to awaken the government from its deep slumber. Shyam Gorkha urged government to concede to their genuine demands at the earliest in the ultimate interests of educational institutions. Among those who joined the protest include Nirmal Kishore, Parshottam Parihar, Kewal Krishan Sharma, Raj Kumar, Udeyveer, Vinod Kumar, Shakeel Anjum, Chetan Sharma, Surinder, Irfan Bhat, Ravender Jamwal, Seema, Sangeeta Sambyal, Balwinder Kaur, Reva Rani, Kiran Sharma, Shilpa Raina and Asha Pathania.