Govt, PU lecturers' talks fail

Talks between the State government and protesting PU lecturers, who have boycotted evaluation work seeking hike in salary, broke down yet again on Sunday.

After the talks failed, the lecturers set April 13 as the deadline for the government to fulfil their demands. They have threatened to go on a hunger strike from April 13 if government fails to agree to their demands.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister Kimmane Ratnakar said, “The talks have not ended as the negotiations are still open. The government is ready to spend an ex-gratia amount of Rs 250 crore annually for the lecturers. However they are not agreeing to this.”

The lecturers have been demanding the implementation of the G Kumar Naik Committee report that recommends that the basic salary be hiked from the present Rs 22,800 to Rs 25,300.  

When asked if there would be a delay in the declaration of the second year PU results, Ratnakar said the matter has to be resolved by April 13. “It will take a total of 15 days for the evaluations to be completed and the matter with PU lecturers needs to be resolved by April 13. There will be no delay in the results at all,” the minister said.

A H Ningegowda, general secretary, State PU Lecturers’ Association said the protest will go on till the government fulfills their demands. As many as 20,000 lecturers under the association are on the strike since April 3.