האגודה הישראלית לחקר יחסי עבודה

(BG) Lecturers and non-teaching employees in the 488 and 662 aided colleges is all but spoiled after the State Government washed off its hands pertaining to their demand for service regularization and implementation of GIA, they have warned of resuming their agitation. Recently, the Government has decided to just hike their salary by 25 per cent.

At a Press meet in Bhubaneswar, the Joint Coordination Committee of the 488-brand college union and a few other college teachers and employees’ unions has decided to hold demonstration before Assembly protesting the Government’s lack of commitment at fulfilling its promises and anti-teacher attitude.

They have said that when the Lecturers had boycotted script evaluation, Higher Education Minister Dr Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy had held a meeting with the agitating unions and promised to fulfill their demands including implementation of GIA and service conditions for Block Grant Lecturers, promotion to rank of Reader in 23 years, retirement age from 60 to 62 years, among others. But months later, he failed to keep his promise and fulfilled none of the prime demands.

Slamming the Government for continuously cheating the teachers and sticking to continuing the Block Grant, the coordination committee threatened to hold cease work and not cooperate in the panchayat election.

Around 488 college teachers union leader Pabitra Mahalla lamented, “There is hell and heaven difference between the teachers getting grant under UGC, State scale and Block Grant. This is discouraging the Block Grant teachers on the lowest pay to take interest in work. Despite repeated strike and assurances by the State Government, nothing has matrialised.” He added that the teachers would hold cease work during the Durga Puja.

“These teachers and staff members have been working for long years and many of them are on the verge of their retirement with the hope to avail benefit of the age-old GIA policy in Odisha, which had been framed several times, the latest being during the 1994 during the premiership of former Chief Minister, legendary leader and BJD icon Biju Patnaik. But the BJD Government in the last 16 years has developed cold feet towards the teachers’ problems and forcing them to work under a disgraceful salary structure by way of Block Grant,” said another teacher leader.

Making clear the fact that these employees are not workers of institutions fully run under the command and control of private management and trusts or corporate bodies, he explained, “As per a long going tradition, the teachers were appointed by management bodies comprising political leaders and intellectuals of local area of institutions built under local effort when the Government was unable to do so. As per the GIA policy of the State Government, these employees get grant after 5, 7 and 9 years of their continuous service. However, the lecturers and non-teaching staff which were appointed by such institutions after 1990 could not avail the benefit of full GIA as yet, thanks to callous attitude of the bureaucrats and an apathetic Government.”

Sources said while the Congress rule from 1995 to 2000 was a black period in the history of education in Odisha with the leaders ignoring the GIA demand of the employees in these institutions under the pleas of fund crunch and mushroom growth of colleges, the people of the State and the employees had expected a lot from the BJD Government. But after long 16 years of rule, the BJD Government, fed with misgivings of some corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, is still reluctant to implement full GIA and regularize the services of these employees.

Original Source