Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 11: Lambasting the State Govt for turning a deaf ear to the repeated representations of School, College and Polytechnic lecturers for redressal of their genuine grievances, the activists of J&K National Panther Party held protest demonstration here today.
Led by former Minister and senior NPP leader Harsh Dev Singh, the party workers staged a massive protest demonstration, seeking salary enhancement and regularization of services of lecturers at Exhibition Ground, Jammu.
Dubbing the exploitation of educated and other unemployed youth of the State as worst form of human rights violation, Mr Singh said that the fast swelling number of highly qualified educated unemployed youth in the State were treated like bonded labourers. He said that under employment and unemployment problem were homologous which has been a root cause of simmering unrest and embitterment among the youth. He added that it could explode any moment like a catastrophe and cause irreparable damages.
Expressing solidarity with the cause of the College, School and Polytechnic lecturers engaged on contract / academic arrangement basis and who included PhDs, M Phils, double post graduates etc., Mr Singh regretted that such highly qualified youth were being paid Rs 7,000 per month in Higher Secondary schools and Polytechnics where as Rs 8,000 in Colleges which had not been revised for the last more than 12 years. He said that not only their honorarium was grossly meager but also quantum of work assigned to them called for second thought and a thorough review.
Seeking intervention of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti into the grave issue, NPP leader advocated for enhancement in the honorarium of all such the contractual/ academic arrangement lecturers who were being made to work for paltry salary as against around Rs 45,000 being paid to a regular lecturer and demanded hike in the emoluments to at least Rs 20,000 as the existing rates had not been revised since 2004.
Present on the occasion included Gangan Partap Singh, Rajesh Padgotra, Manju Singh, Sangeeta Sambyal, Kiran Sharma, Abhimanyu Sharma, Vinod Kumar, Arif Mohd, Ayaz Hussan Wani and others.
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