The College Contractual Teachers Association (CCTA) on Saturday staged a protest against the Higher Education Department (HED) for withholding their salaries since August 2019.
The contractual lecturers accused the department of humiliation despite keeping the department functional for decades.
Spokesperson of CCTA Muhammad Iqbal Rather said the department never paid attention to their grievances and accorded them a stepmotherly treatment as they were deprived of their salary since August 2019.
“Post July 2019 period has been tough for the ‘academic arrangement’ faculty and the present challenge of COVID-19 has added to our miseries,” he said.
Notably, the HED verbally disengaged the college contractual lecturers following the closure of educational institutions across J&K in August 2019.
Following this, the aggrieved candidates approached the High Court and obtained a status quo.
“But we have been subjected to the utmost humiliation by the J&K Higher Education Department. Academic arrangement faculty has kept the skeletal of education alive from decades but are facing humiliation in return,” Rather said.
The CCTA during their protest highlighted various issues and also accused the department of violation of court orders.
“The exclusion of academic arrangement from civil services special provisions act, 2010 aggravated the faculty,” he said.
The association spokesperson said the academic arrangement of colleges witnessed this humiliation and sensed job insecurity as well in wake of their exclusion from civil services special provisions act, 2010.
Some of the faculty members knocked the doors of judiciary in 2014, he said.
After analyzing their petitions the J&K High Court issued Status Quo and directed the department that the position of the petitioner must not be disturbed till the final disposal of the case,” the spokesman said.
He said the department was going well with the Status Quo of the candidates and was maintaining the position of the petitioners and released their salaries till July 2019.
“But post July 2019 period, the department did not implement Court orders,” he said. “High Court from time to time issued directions to the department in order to release the salaries of the faculty and maintain their status as per the guidelines issued vide order 78-HE of 2018 dated February 08 of 2018.”
“But to our surprise the department never abided by those orders and directions, which highlight the whimsical approach and highhandedness of the HED,” he said.
The protesting college contractual teachers said despite working on court orders the HED left no stone unturned in torturing the academic arrangement faculty.
“To disturb the position of the petitioners the department issued a notification in 2020 under order no 88-(JK)-HE that too stands stayed by the High Court,” they said.
The CCTA urged the J&K Lieutenant Governor (LG) Manoj Sinha, advisor Rajiv Rai Batnagar, Secretary HED Sushma Chauhan for their intervention into the matter.