Contract employees demand job security

Chittoor: More than 2,000 contract employees of the Adult Education department have staged a dharna at the Collectorate here on Tuesday, under the banner of the Andhra Pradesh Adult Education Contract Employees Association (AECEA).

Addressing the contract employees, AECEA state president P Sidda Reddy said that 40 district coordinators, 504 mandal coordinators and 19,959 village coordinators across the state are working in the Adult Education department from 2010 onwards with meagre salaries.

Contract employees have been striving hard for the last eight years to achieve hundred per cent literacy, he stated. Sidda Reddy has expressed anguish over not regularising the services of contract employees, who are highly qualified in computer education, by the government.

“We were able to reduce drop out rate in the government schools,” he added. The association leader mentioned that several representations were submitted to the government seeking regularisation of services. He regretted that state government took a decision to terminate services of all contract employees.

AECEA general secretary K Subba Rao said that contract employees were playing crucial role in running the Vignana Kendrams in villages for improving the literacy rate among the adults. He demanded the government to provide job security for their jobs by regularising their services.

He made an appeal to the government to provide health cards for the contract employees and extending HRA on par with state government employees. Later, association leaders have submitted a memorandum to Joint Collector P S Girisha.