To push pending demands,college teachers stage hunger strike

Over 15,000 teachers who had earlier decided to boycott the evaluation of university exam papers have decided to continue with their stir as long as a decision is not taken by the state government.

For two separate periods — a ten-month period in 2009-10 and from January 2006 to 2010 — the teachers have alleged that over 80 per cent of their salaries are pending as per the revised pay scale of the Sixth Pay Commission.

While evaluation of papers for B.A,B.Sc,B.Com,M.A,M.Com and other courses including professional and vocational courses usually begin in the last week of March,so far no evaluations have begun,raising concerns over the possibility of a delay in the declaration of results due to the ongoing protests.

AK Walunj,secretary,Pune University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) said,“We have been protesting for a long time now,but the state government has refused to change its callous attitude on the issue. We have been forced to resort to means such as hunger strike and boycott of paper correction. While the state government employees,central universities’ staff and others have received their arrears,only senior college teachers have been left out.”

Even though the University Grants Commission (UGC) has given an exemption to teachers appointed between September 1991 and April 2000 to have NET/SET qualifications,the state government is yet to recognise them.

Only recently,over 800 varsity teachers had protested a slew of government resolutions declaring that teachers without NET/SET qualifications could lose their jobs. This was followed by a stormy session of the UoP Senate in the last two days. However,the matter is yet to find an amicable solution.

The teachers handed over their draft of demands to the collector’s office on Monday. When contacted,district collector,Vikas Deshmukh,said,“We have no role to play on the issue. We can only forward their demands to the state government.”