BENGALURU : Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah agreed to increase the honorarium of guest lecturers by Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 based on their experience and appealed to them to call off their strike immediately and report to duty.
He was speaking in the meeting held today with the representatives of the protesting guest lecturers and discussed their demands.
The Chief Minister recalled that even when he was the leader of the opposition party, he raised his voice on behalf of the guest lecturers and demanded a salary hike. Our government has humanitarian concerns about guest lecturers.
However, it is not possible to provide job security due to legal complications. Our government has again proposed to increase your salary within two years. We have considered the demands of the guest lecturers very sympathetically, he said.
The CM explained that the government will increase the honorarium by Rs 5000 for those with less than five years of service, Rs 6000 for those with 5 to 10 years of service, Rs 7000 for those with 10 to 15 years of service and Rs 8 thousand for those with more than 15 years of service experience.
The Chief Minister agreed on implementing health insurance of Rs. 5 lakh per annum to the guest lecturers. Rs. 5 lakh will be provided to the serving guest lecturers after 60 years of age. One day of paid leave per month to those with more than 15 hours of workload per week and 3 months of paid maternity leave to guest lecturers will be provided.
Along with this, the CM also agreed to give weightage based on their experience in recruitment, simplifying the counselling process to enable them to continue their service in the same place where the guest lecturers were working for the next year as well if the workload is available.
Higher Education Minister Dr M.C. Sudhakar, Chief Minister’s Political Secretary K. Govindaraju, Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister L.K. Ateeq, Higher Education Department Secretary M.S. Shrikar, Commissioner of Higher Education and Technical Education Department G. Jagdish and other senior officers, representatives of guest lecturers were present. (ANI)