India : Govt teachers go on hunger strike, demand pay parity
Coimbatore: Teachers of government-aided colleges and state universities across the state went on a day-long hunger strike on Saturday demanding the state government to fulfil their demands. The teachers had placed
a list of 14 demands ranging from parity in pay hike and appointment of a director for collegiate education.
The members of the Association of University Teachers (AUT), Madurai Kamaraj University Teachers' Association (MUTA), Tamil Nadu Government College Teachers' Association (TNGCTA) and the Joint Action Council for College Teachers (JAC) participated in the hunger strike held in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Salem and Tirunelveli.
In Coimbatore, the hunger protest was held in Tatabad from 9am to 5.30pm. Nearly 200 teachers from colleges and universities in the city participated in the protest.
General secretary of AUT, N Pasupathi said, "The issue of pay disparity is due to the inappropriate revision of grade pay of some teachers. This has to be ratified before the pay commission arrears are issued to the teachers."
As for the post of the director of collegiate education, it has been vacant for more than three years now. "The IAS officer who was given additional charge has also been relieved. We want the senior most professor in government colleges to be given the post," he added.
They also demanded quashing of a government order, which mandates teachers to take prior permission to contest election in university senate and syndicate. "This is a move by the state government to prevent genuine candidates from contesting elections. This will facilitate corruption in the system," said the TNGCTA vice-president, C Veeramani.
Another major demand that the college teachers placed during the protest was to scrap the contributory pension scheme and re-introduce the defined pension scheme. "We also want the state government to increase the salary of teachers who are on contract to 25,000," Veeramani said.