Part-time lecturers stage protest in Vijayawada

Vijayawada: The unaided faculty members of private aided colleges continued their protest against GO No 35 for the fourth consecutive day here on Monday.

They demanded that the government fix minimum time scale, job security and other benefits like PF, health care etc.

Students and unaided staff of the colleges boycotted the classes and actively participated in the protests.

President of Stella Mary College Unaided Association Santhi Sree said that a few of their faculty members were arrested by the police and were kept in Machavaram, Autonagar and Penamaluru police stations, “which is inhuman.”

She said that for the last two decades, the unaided staff was working with regular faculty members for meager wages.

They had met MLAs, MLCs and government officials for regularization of their job and for minimum time scale (MTS) but in vain. The situation forced them to come onto roads demanding justice.

She recalled that the government was considering all the sections of society in its welfare programmes and completely neglecting the unaided staff of private aided colleges who were playing an important role in providing quality education especially to the backward sections of society.

About 2,500 part-time lecturers participated in the protest in their respective colleges all over the state during the last four days, she added.