KOCHI: The 53-day-old-strike at Maharaja’s College by a section of teachers and students was called off after the third round of talks between representatives of the agitators and government officials led by higher education additional chief secretary K.M. Abraham in the state capital on Sunday.
According to AKGCT general secretary, Dr K. K. Damodaran, who participated in the talks, the two sides came to an agreement on the two remaining contentious issues and the strikers belonging to AKGCT and SFI decided to call off the strike.
These iss-ues are turning other government colleges into autonomous ones and reinstating 15 transferred teachers at Maharaja’s College itself.
“The government representatives told us that granting autonomy to other government colleges was not on the agenda of the government and it was a non-existent issue and hence it amounted to just a matter of discord. Secondly, they said that the transferred teachers would be accommodated in vacancies that arose in Maharaja’s College and nearby colleges in future. They said only redressal of the issue was possible and not reversal with which we agreed. Since this was not the core issue of the strike, we did not insist on our previous stand,” said Mr Damodaran.
However, according to Dr Thomas Kuruvila, additional director, collegiate education department, who took part in the talks, the strikers were informed that the government was not granting autonomy on its own, but would consider it when the colleges themselves applied for it, including government colleges.
“When colleges apply for it we have to consider them. It is the right of the colleges granted by the UGC. We did not give any blanket assurance in this regard,” he said. He also said that the government stuck to the stand that since the transfers were subjudice, they could not be considered at this juncture but would consider them case by case after the High Court verdict.
He also said that many issues raised by the strikers and claimed to be resolved by the government were non-existent as the Act was clear. He said that it was for the college and its governing council to decide on starting self-financing courses and the government had no role in it.
“Government means only academic autonomy and the strikers’ earlier allegations on fees, reservation, conduct of exams are unfounded as the Act is crystal clear on them. The issue of student-teacher representation on the governing council will have to be placed before the autonomy approval committee and the Act has to be amended for that,” Dr Kuruvila said.
