Andhra Pradesh: Future of lecturers hangs in balance

Tirupati: The pathetic lives of contract lecturers and guest faculty working in government junior colleges in Andhra Pradesh have become even worse this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. They neither got renewal orders nor are they getting salaries and their future has become uncertain. With no other option available, they are planning to observe Satyagraha on Monday to draw the government's attention towards their problems.

There are about 3,700 contract junior lecturers in the State working for the past 15 years while another 750 degree lecturers are there. Though, the contract lecturers and guest faculty bore the major brunt of the workload in every junior college, their services did not get due recognition by the government.

Their salary of Rs 18,000 was increased to Rs 37,100 by the TDP government in 2019 before the elections and agreed to pay them 12-month salaries with a break of 10 days in March. But, this year they have not received their salaries since March. Now, they are seeking to release the salaries due since March and immediately issue renewal orders. They also seeking regularisation of their services. They have been facing another threat of losing their jobs with the government's rationalisation move.

Secretary of Contract Lecturers' Association D Gayatri told The Hans India that even without salaries and renewal orders, they have been campaigning for admissions since May though Covid was rampant. Due to which 6 to 7 faculty members died of Covid and of them three were from Chittoor district. They have been working with a hope of regularisation despite all odds, she said.

The woes of guest faculty are a shade worse. They are waiting for their honorarium of Rs 10,000 per month for the last three years. There were about 1,180 guest faculty in the state. But their posts were not approved by the Finance department though the guest faculty system came into existence in 2014-15. Colleges were asked to pay them from their funds which has become a burden for them.

Treasurer of Guest Faculty Association K Lakshman Reddy said that in Telangana, the guest faculty were getting Rs 21,600 per month. "Though we work for 10 months with an average of 120 periods per month, the government pays us for eight months only by calculating only 72 periods. Even that amount was due for the last three years," he averred.