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Varsity teachers threaten strike
Telangana State university teachers have threatened to go on indefinite strike if government failed to resolve issues related to the state varsities immediately.
Hyderabad: Telangana State university teachers have threatened to go on indefinite strike if government failed to resolve issues related to the state varsities immediately.
- Demand appointment of regular Vice Chancellors
- TSFUTA to hold a round-table on March 30
The teachers demanded the government that they immediately appoint vice chancellors in order to restore academics, increase block grants for the universities, constitute executive councils, and enhance superannuation age to 65 among others.
Speaking to the media at Osmania University on Thursday, Telangana State Federation of University Teachers’ Association (TSFUTA) Chairman B Satyanarayana said they would conduct a round table conference on the university issues and chalk out an action plan on March 30. “We will announce the strike date on March 30,” he said.
On the prevailing issues in universities, he said even though varsities have remained headless from the past several months, the government failed to appoint regular VCs till date. He added that in their absence, academics in all the universities have come to a standstill.
“The government appointed IAS officers as in-charge VCs and they don’t even have time to visit the university. In-charge VC of Osmania University did not even visit university for one hour,” he said. Satyanarayana lamented that with no regular VCs, the universities were losing RUSA grants as they were due for the National Assessment and Accreditation (NAAC) grading.
“The Central government said grants will be given to universities which have NAAC grading. Almost all the varsities do not have NAAC. Already State universities are battling with financial crunch. Further, if there is no NAAC grade, the government will deny grants for the universities,” he bemoaned. Satyanarayana said while the OU received about Rs 9 crore from the Department of Science and Technology about Rs 1.5 crore is yet to be spent.
Satyanarayana stated that universities wouldn’t have professors as most of the senior faculty members would retire from their services in the next couple of years. According to Satyanarayana, 560 regular teachers were working against 1,260 sanctioned posts in OU. At the end of 2016, 50 teachers would retire, in 2017, 2018 and 2019, 40 teachers would retire.
“By end of the 2020, universities will have no regular staff if the government does not take up regular recruitment,” he said. He lamented that in the absence of professors and the required number of staff, departments like astronomy, geophysics, psychology, chemistry, economics and electronics & communications, have already lost their Special Assistance Programme grant under which Rs 50 lakh to Rs 5 crore is allocated to each
department.
TSFUTA Secretary General B Manohar said that the present allocation of block to the universities would not be sufficient to meet the requirements. “Every year there is 10 per cent increment and also DA. Accordingly, the government should increase the block grant for the universities,” he added.
