On completion of one month of the ongoing indefinite protest by guest lecturers on Saturday, the lecturers took out a protest march by removing their shirts and wearing black arm bands to express their ire against the State government for failing to regularize their services.
The agitating lecturers, under the aegis of Karnataka State Government First Grade Colleges Guest Lecturers Horata Samiti, removed their shirts and took out a march from the protest venue to Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Chowk and reached the Deputy Commissioner’s office and raised slogans urging the State government to fulfill the long pending demand of guest lecturers across the State who are working in first grade Colleges for the last 15 years.
The secretary of the samiti Chandrakant Shirolli and its members Sharanabasappa Maisalgi accused the government of not taking any decision on the regularisation of their services during the winter session of Karnataka legislature in Belagavi.
There are 350 guest lecturers in Kalaburagi district and nearly 11,000 across the State, Dr. Shiroli said, and added that though most of the First Grade Colleges are dependent on guest lecturers as 75% of the posts are filled by guest lecturers, they have not been paid salaries regularly. At present they were receiving honorarium only for seven to eight months in every academic year.
