Tirupati: Academic consultants at SVU demand change of designation

Tirupati: Academic consultants (ACs) working at Sri Venkateswara University are on a protest path for the past four days demanding immediate implementation of GO No 110 issued in 2022, which will enable them to get increments based on their service period and educational qualifications. They were also seeking change of their designation from academic consultants to Assistant Professors (Contract) which was already implemented in several other universities.

It was learnt that the university authorities have no objection and assured the agitating ACs that they will implement GO 110. But they were not willing to change the designations as it should be approved by the Executive Council. With this, the 228-contract faculty have been protesting before the university administrative building without attending their duties. They have even boycotted the ongoing MBA examination duties and warned that unless the problem is solved, they are not going to attend Engineering semester exams, which are commencing from Monday.

Speaking to The Hans India, SVU Academic Consultants association secretary Dr IS Kishore said that GO 100 enables those having PhD degree to get Rs 35,000 per month and with NET and SLET additional qualifications they will get Rs 5,000 additionally. All the faculty should get Rs 1,000 as increment per annum from the date of their joining with a ceiling of Rs 57,700. SV University was not implementing this GO citing various reasons.

Also, it was learnt that the University authorities have shown their designations as Assistant Professors at the time of NAAC visit to get better ranking without changing the designations. This ACs could not digest and want to settle it now. The secretary said that University authorities should change the designation immediately as was done in other varsities. If needed, they can ratify the decision later at the EC meeting. Unless this demand is met, they are not going to put an end to the agitation.