Karnataka Gov't to form a panel that can address the demands of guest lecturers

The Karnataka Government has ordered the immediate constitution of a committee headed by the Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Higher Education, to prepare a detailed report on addressing issues of guest lecturers across the state. Secretaries of the departments of Finance and Law, and Commissioner, Department of Collegiate and Technical Education (DCTE), will be members of the committee. The panel has been asked to submit the report with regard to demands of over 14,000 guest lecturers working under the department, within the specified time limit, which will be fixed on constitution of the committee.

Over the past two years, 14,564 guest lecturers across Karnataka have been demanding regularisation of their services.The lecturers have demanded that Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai take up their issue for discussion in the Assembly and Council. The guest lecturers have been intermittently staging protests in different parts of the state to press their demands.

Their grievances come in the background of the state government mulling over a plan to appoint about 8,000 additional guest lecturers to meet increasing demands for implementation of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, even as the existing ones' salaries and services are not regularised, as per their demands.