BENGALURU: Despite the Pre-University department circular ordering lecturers not to protest, owing to the election model code of conduct and with exams nearing, the state PU lecturers went ahead with their protest on Thursday. They put forth 21 demands to the district commissioner’s office in Bengaluru and threatened to boycott evaluation of exam papers if these are not fulfilled.
Nearly 20,000 lecturers took part in the protest held across the state, and submitted the memorandum to respective district commissioners. The main demands include increment in salaries and withholding the state government’s decision to take back the ex-gratia amount given to them between 2008-2018, at one go.
S R Venkatesh, Vice President, Karnataka Pre-University Lecturers Association (KPULA) said, “They need to address the pay scale and promotion of lecturers who have served for 10 years or more. They also need to form a committee to resolve the excess workload on us. We are deputed to other colleges which already have enough staff, as they assume that we have less work load.”
Filling up vacancies for the principal’s post in 600 colleges and limiting class strength, are their other demands.