The Hindu : Karnataka / Mangalore News : Federation to raise demands of teachers with Govt.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Mangalore

Federation to raise demands of teachers with Govt.

By Our Staff Correspondent

MANGALORE, JAN. 30. The Federation of University College Teachers' Association of Karnataka will take up 30 demands of teachers with the Government, including the immediate payment of salary arrears to teachers and the impact of the amendment to the Karnataka State Universities Act.

The general secretary of the federation, A.M. Narahari, told The Hindu here today that the State Government has not paid salary arrears totalling Rs. 40 crores to over 6,000 college teachers from 1999.

UGC scales

He said the UGC scales were implemented in Karnataka on November 15, 1999, and the Union Government released Rs. 150 crores to the State Government in this regard, he said.

But the State Government paid only 20 per cent of the amount and gave national savings certificate for the balance amount, he added. The State Government should have cleared the arrears by March 31, 2000.

But after some delay, the Directorate of Collegiate Education remitted the funds back to the treasury, he said.

He also said that only 2,600 teachers got the arrears on time.

Vacant seats

Raising the issue of 15,000 engineering seats going vacant in 2004, Prof. Narahari said the federation has taken this seriously.

The federation had also decided to warn the Government to set things right by making suitable amendments this academic year.

He said that to do this, the Government should first tackle politicians owing professional colleges, who, he said, are in favour of replacing the Common Entrance Test with a new system that can help them impose higher fees on students.

The federation, which meet in Bangalore on Saturday, decided to take action to restore the democratic set up in university bodies, Prof. Narahari said.

The amendment to the Karnataka State Universities Act has left universities vulnerable to political influence as the Vice-Chancellors of the universities are being appointed by political parties, he added.

He said there is a delay in paying salaries to teachers.

The Government has also refused to pay "evaluation fees" to teachers valuating answer papers of students, he added.

Demonstration

The federation decided that 300 teachers and members of the federation will stage a demonstration in front of the office of the Minister for Higher Education, D. Manjunath, on February 15.

This will be followed up by a conference in Mysore on March 11 and 12 where these issues will be discussed in detail, he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section

Membership drive comes a cropper

Federation to raise demands of teachers with Govt.

No one to man traffic islands here

Farmers told to adopt cashew as alternative crop

Bantwal sammelana on Saturday

`Jagruta Samavesha' today

Mayor visits construction sites

In Mangalore Today

Readers' Mail