IMPHAL, Aug 21: Recalling the valuable service provided by the Part-time lecturers in keeping the higher education system in the state from falling apart due to the inability of the government to run the colleges of Manipur, the Part-Time Lecturers Association of Pettigrew College in Ukhrul has stated in a release that recognition of the part-time lecturers has not come from the concerned authorities who took advantage of the teachers to continue the stop-gap arrangement but failed to address their request for regularization of services.
The press statement said the engagement of the part-time lecturers began in the early part of the 1990’s in view of the acute shortage of lecturers on a paltry remuneration of Rs. 1000 per month. Later it was increased to the minimum basic pay of lecturer as per the UGC guidelines, it added while mentioning that there was a government policy for regularization of their services in 1999, but consequently a Presidential rule abolished it in 2001.
Although the chief minister told the part-timers to clear the NET/UGC and latest RRs for lectureship, nothing positive was done by the authorities and at the moment 90 percent of the part-time lecturers have crossed the age bar while serving for more than a decade and a half, it said.
The part-time lecturers association has asked the state government to frame a suitable policy for the remaining lecturers so that their services could be regularized along with enhancement of remuneration according to the UGC norms. The association has said that if the government fails to give a positive response by the end of this month the association would be compelled to start a series of agitations in the form of ceasework strike, sit-in protest and hunger strike.
