HYDERABAD: The ongoing protest by the contractual assistant professors of 12 universities across the state has further intensified with agitators on Monday giving a call for a larger movement to force the government to meet their demands.
The Telangana Contract Assistant Professors Joint Action Committee has called for ‘Chalo Osmania’ on April 23, in which the protesting assistant professors from all the 12 universities will gather at Osmania University.
The protest has been going on for a few weeks now in which professors of Osmania University, Hyderabad; Telangana University, Nizamabad; Mahatma Gandhi University, Nalgonda; Kakatiya University, Warangal; SPR Telugu University, Hyderabad; Satavahana University, Karimnagar; JNTUH, Hyderabad; Palamuru University, Mahbubnagar; RGUKT, Basara; BRAOU, Hyderabad; JNFAU, Hyderabad and VNCI Women’s University, Hyderabad have been participating.
The committee leader Dharmateja told TNIE, “We have been observing an indefinite strike for the last two weeks now. We have presented our demands in writing to the government several times for over a year now, but nothing happened and we are now calling for a ‘Chalo Osmania’.”
The contractual faculty members stated that the indifference of the government to their decades of service was depressing. They added that the government had promised job regularisation of the contractual teachers in the election manifesto and now it was overlooking its own promise by introducing GO 21 for new recruitment for regular teaching faculty in the state universities.
E Upender Rao, one of the members of the committee, said, “We have been working for decades in the universities, carrying the burden of administration and other academic responsibilities efficiently. We are very much qualified for regular posts as per the UGC norms and instead of giving due consideration to our service and contribution, the government is simply overlooking our existence.”
The Osmania University faculty also criticised the ‘indifference’ shown by the vice-chancellor towards the protesting members by not allowing them permission to set up a tent.
Meanwhile, 20 professors were detained on Monday for holding a protest at the Osmania University administration building. They were released in the evening.
The major demands of the contractual faculty are: immediate withdrawal of GO 21, regularisation of all the contractual teaching faculty, dearness allowance (DA) and house rent allowance (HRA), salary as per the seventh pay commission and job security.