JOIN USThe state government is reportedly willing to give pre-university lecturers another increment as they have been demanding for long.
The lecturers had boycotted the evaluation of II PU answer scripts for 18 days in April, urging the government to pay them better. They withdrew the protest after the government assured them that it would consider their demand later provided they attended to evaluation duty immediately. The government gave them one increment at that time.
On Sunday, office bearers of Karnataka PU Colleges Lecturers’ Association met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. They mentioned that lecturers in Karnataka were being paid around 10,000 less than what their counterparts were getting in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. They also demanded that pre-university lecturers who had completed NET/PhD be promoted to degree lecturers. A committee headed by IAS officer G Kumar Naik had recommended correction of the disparities.
Official sources said the government was in favour of meeting some of the demands, including a second increment, but an announcement could not be made right now as the model code of conduct was in place in view of the MLC elections. “The chief minister gave us a patient hearing. He said the government will respond positively to our demands. Another round of discussion is likely to be held by the end of this month,” association president Thimmaiah Purle told reporters.