The State government should regularise the posts of guest lecturers and provide them a salary of ₹45,000, the Dalit Liberation Movement has said.
In a letter addressed to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, the State general secretary of the movement, S. Karupiah, said around 1.5 lakh teachers, who had been employed in colleges affiliated to various State universities such as University of Madras, Anna University, Madurai Kamaraj University and in arts and science and engineering colleges, medical and paramedical colleges, were paid a maximum of ₹20,000 as salary till date.
The University Grants Commission had laid down guidelines a decade ago that guest lecturers should be paid ₹45,000 a month.
The movement urged the Higher Education Department to abide by the UGC guidelines.
Also, colleges and universities had been appointing retired professors to tide over the shortage of faculty. This had resulted in new posts being created, and it was also detrimental to the reservation policy, it pointed out.
Mr. Karupiah urged the government to refrain from making such appointments.
The letter appealed to the Chief Minister to ensure that there was no discrimination in the appointment of faculty in State-run universities and colleges.
The movement also called on higher educational institutions to follow the UGC rules and conduct public exams to select qualified candidates, abiding by the State’s reservation policy.
