College teachers’ dharna on collegiate education office premises continues

Teachers of government-aided colleges and affiliated to the MUTA (Madurai Kamaraj, Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Mother Teresa and Alagappa University Teachers’ Association) staged dharna at the office of the Regional Joint Director of Collegiate Education at Gandhi Nagar on Tirunelveli outskirts on Monday demanding immediate disbursal of career advancement scheme salary arrears.

The protesting teachers said the Tamil Nadu Government, which was giving the career advancement salary to government college teachers, was refusing to extend the same privilege to the teachers of government-aided colleges for the past four years. Consequently, the Associate Professors could not guide additional students in the Ph.D. programme.

“Even though the Minister for Higher Education had promised to address this anomaly, no step has been taken so far to fulfil this assurance. Hence, we sent e-mails to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to press our demand. We also submitted petitions with all MLAs. Since the Tamil Nadu Government is not ready to listen to our genuine grievance, we staged sit-in protest even as the Tamil Nadu Assembly session was on. However, there is no response from the Department of Higher Education. If the Tamil Nadu Government is still adamant, we’ll start indefinite agitations,” said the protesting teachers.

The protest continued even after 8.30 p.m.