SHIMLA: Joint Action Committee of all the universities and college teachers on Friday announced the boycotting of  evaluation  of UG Examinations of all classes starting from May 12 and would start hunger strike from June 4 in protest as all assurances given by Chief Minister over the new pay-scales have fallen on deaf ears of the state government so far.

JAC announced this decision at the press conference addressed   by the members secretaries of JAC Dr. R L Sharma and Dr. J S Saklani here today.

JAC is an umbrella body  comprising  of different associations  of universities  and colleges including Himachal Government College Teachers’ Association, Himachal  Pradesh  University  Teachers’  Welfare  Association, Himachal  Pradesh  University  Teachers’ Association, Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University Teachers Association, Himachal  Pradesh  University  of Forestry and Horticulture  Teachers’ Association and non-Government  College  Teachers’ Association.

“We have made a number of representations to Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh  and Honorable Education Minister and other Ministers and have met them many times but got nothing except  empty assurances”, JAC said.

“The College Teachers’ Associations had given prior notice to the government and also gave a time-frame of 7 days to resolve the long-pending issues”.

However, it is regretted that the government  did not consider  our notice seriously and we have been forced to take the unpleasant measure of protest by way of boycotting  evaluation  of UG Examination of all classes w e f 12/5/22, they declared.

“As a mark of our protest, a one-day mass hunger strike on 23/5/22 was observed by all the members in all 138 colleges of the state”, they said. “Thereafter from 24/5/22, we are  observing a one hour protest in the form of ‘dharna’ from 12.30pm to 1.30 pm in all the Colleges of Himachal Pradesh”.

“Through this Press conference, we want to give a clear message to the government that for our genuine issues, we all are united”, the JAC leaders said.

“This is our genuine right which is due with the government w.e. f 1/1/2016.The UGC has notified it in Nov, 2017 and most of the States have notified and given it to their stakeholders except Himachal and Punjab”.

Himachal government has given the new  pay scales to all other employees  of the State which are about 1.75 lakh.  but the government  is indifferent  to the college and university  teachers.

All the university and college teachers are about 3000 in strength. We fail to understand why the government is giving step motherly treatment to university and college teachers.

One argument that government is giving to us is that the state has no resources to give our dues. This argument seems invalid, since in our case, UGC refunds 50 percent of the total liability of the first five years.  

“We have submitted all the details of the financial liability to the Finance Department in March 2022, but our issue is still pending and being tossed between departments”, JAC said. 

No Big Burden on Government 

The total liability of implementation of 7th UGC pay scales for all universities and college teachers is 534 crores w e f 1/1/16 to 31/12/21 for six years. The Government has already given an amount of Rs 162 crores in the shape of IR.

The amount to be refunded by the UGC after implementation will be 190 crore. The Net liability on the state government for five years is 255 and annually it is about 51 crore.

“This is a meagre amount for a state but the government is not serious about our issues and is forcing  us to hit the streets for protest”.

“We are not evaluating UG Examination answer-scripts since 12/5/22 and the government is not concerned about our issues and students’ concerns”.

The Universities’ Joint  Action Committee has been constituted to chalk  out the future strategy  of protest.

It was resolved that due to the visit of the Honorable Prime Minister  to Shimla on 31/5/22, the mode of protest will remain the same.

It is  observed that due to the busy schedule  of  the CM and EM due to the visit of PM to Shimla, we deferred our proposed chain hunger strike from today to 4/6/22. “It shows our sensitivity  that we are concerned about the issues of the government but the government  is still indifferent about our issues”, JAC said. 

Today, it is the 7th day of our dharna and the 23rd day since college  teachers have boycotted  the evaluation  of UG classes in protest  against  the non  implementation  of 7th UGC pay scales for college  and University  teachers.

“It shows the insensitivity  of the government  about  the issues  of teachers and students. It is really  a matter of concern  that all the states have given 7th UGC  pay scales to  their teachers except Himachal and Punjab”.

“We are being  forced  to protest to seek our legitimate  due from government”.

It is really  a sad  state-of-affairs  that despite the protest by the teachers, the government  has not invited  the teachers  for talks and not shown any concern about the future  of the students.

The government is forcing  teachers  to come on the roads and halt the entire education process. This is all due to the lackluster  response  of the government about Education.

90 Colleges are without Principals

They said that  DPC of College Principals has not been convened for the last four years. At present, about 90 colleges  out of 132 Colleges  are without  regular  Principals. 

Another major issue is the restoration of M.Phil. / Ph.D. increments, which have been withdrawn by the government arbitrarily after 1/10/2014.

Another important demand is the Post of Professors in the colleges as per UGC norms ,which the Punjab Government  has given in the state since 2010. In our state, it has not been  implemented so far.

Notional benefits to contract teachers in the colleges  as per the UGC norms is long overdue. Benefits of contractual service for CAS as in the university need to be implemented immediately. 

The implementation of National Education Policy 2020 needs more involvement of stakeholders with practical application for effective implementation. 

However, unfortunately, unilateral decisions are being taken by the university authorities without taking the major stakeholders  in confidence  in all the matters which are related to colleges.