BU, affiliated colleges to get holidays on second, fourth Saturday

BENGALURU:  Teachers and students of Bangalore University, and its constituent colleges, University Law College, Physical Department colleges, post-graduation centre at Ramanagar, and University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), will henceforth have holidays on second and fourth saturdays. Till now, the University had declared a holiday on the third Saturday, although not in consonance with the government holiday, which was declared for second Saturday.

The holidays were announced in an order by the vice chancellor of Bangalore University K Venugopal on June 20, with immediate effect. The decision took a toll on the work life of non-teacher staff who would have to try and balance both the government and the college working days. “The non-teaching staff ended up working on both second and third Saturday,” said the vice chancellor of Bangalore University, Venugopal.

The two Saturdays mandated by the government as holidays for public servants also coincide with the bank holidays. Hence, it was better for the institution to also take a holiday (in light of the stalled administration work), added Venugopal.

UVCE staff get some relief
While the debate on the ownership of UVCE still continues, the holiday declared by the university, extending to its constituent colleges, which includes the engineering college, comes as a good news to staff members. Officials said the working hours at UVCE were more than that of the university and its affiliated colleges. 

School teachers yet to know about holidays
A delegation of teachers have approached the CM about the new holiday structure being detrimental to them. They said they would not only lose their second and fourth Saturday holidays owing to school rules, but will also have lesser number of ‘occasional leaves,’ from 15 days 10 days. Public Instruction Commissioner P C Jaffer told TNIE that teachers did not come under the purview of the second and fourth Saturday holiday structure.