Guest lecturers withdraw stir after Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah offers another hike

Guest lecturers, who were on protest for the last one-and-a-half months, withdrew their agitation on Saturday after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah offered them another hike in their monthly honorarium.

Guest lecturers will report back to work from Monday. 

Siddaramaiah said the honorarium will be hiked by Rs 8,000 for guest lecturers who have more than 15 years of experience. 

Earlier, the government had offered a hike of Rs 5,000 along with benefits like lump sum amount of Rs 5 lakh as retirement benefit and health insurance of Rs 5 lakh among others.

Announcing the new hike, Siddaramaiah appealed to the guest lecturers to end their strike.

Siddaramaiah chaired a meeting with Higher Education Minister Dr M C Sudhakar and representatives of guest lecturers. They discussed resolving the deadlock that has kept guest lecturers in protest mode since November 23. The protest had affected classes in government-run colleges. 

Siddaramaiah made it clear that the government cannot make permanent the services of guest lecturers, which is their core demand.

The CM offered a hike in honorarium by Rs 5,000 for guest lecturers with less than five years of experience, Rs 6,000 for those with 5-10 years, Rs 7,000 for 10-15 years and Rs 8,000 for those with more than 15 years of
experience. 

The CM even assured that the government would consider other demands in a phased manner.