KOCHI:The 15 teachers of Maharaja’s College, who were transferred for supporting the agitation against granting autonomous status to the college, bid adieu on Tuesday.
All the transferred teachers are members of the Association of Kerala Government College Teachers (AKGCT), which is supporting the agitation.
According to the teachers, none of them had applied for the transfer. They alleged that the government was taking revenge against them for not submitting affidavit declaring cooperation with the authorities in procedures related to granting autonomy to the college.
The Department of Higher Education had ordered that the teaching staff who wished to continue in an autonomous institution and those who wished to get transferred to such a college should submit an affidavit indicating that they would cooperate with the autonomy procedure.
“The order to submit the affidavit is aimed at sabotaging the agitation. A section of teachers who submitted the affidavit did so as there was a threat of transfer,” said AKGCT state committee member Santhosh T Varghese, who is one among the transferred teachers.
“Though the court refused to quash the transfer order, the Association will challenge the ‘illegal’ order to file the affidavit,” AKGCT state president K Radhakrishnan and secretary K K Damodaran said in a statement.
Meanwhile, intensifying agitation against the autonomous status, the Maharajas College Samrakshana Samithi on Monday launched a ‘rapakal’ (day-and-night) strike.
