Andhra Pradesh: Contract professors' protest enters day 25

Guntur: As many as 1,500 assistant professors working on a contract basis at 14 government universities in the state have been staging relay hunger fasts in front of their respective institutes for the past 25 days. In the absence of any response from the government, they plan to intensify their agitation.

The assistant Professors, led by the Universities Teachers’ Association (Contract) Andhra Pradesh (UTAAP), are demanding regularisation of their services, equal pay for equal work in accordance with the Supreme Court’s guidelines, cancellation of screening tests for appointment to regular posts, and all the benefits offered to government employees.

These employees, who are working as contract and ad hoc assistant Professors at various universities, claim that they have been working arduously for the past 15 years to give students a good education, but the government is reluctant to regularise their services.

Dr K. Arjunudu, the president of the UTAAP, says that 1,500 assistant Professors are working on a contract basis, for nominal pay, at 14 government universities across 13 districts. He says that government universities used to regularise the services of such employees by appointing them to UGC-sanctioned posts. But the government has recently decided to conduct recruitments to UGC-sanctioned posts through a screening test conducted by the APPSC.

Dr Arjunudu says that despite the assistant professors having taught students for the past 15 years, the government still doubts their teaching abilities, which is very sad. He adds that though they have been conducting hunger fasts for the past 25 days, they have received no response from the government. He warns that UTAAP plans to intensify agitations if the government remains adamant.

Md Touseef Ahmad and N. Anupama, assistant Professors at Acharya Nagarjuna University, say that this issue has been raised in the Legislative Assembly by BJP MLA P. Vishnu Kumar Raju, Telugu Desam whip Kuna Ravi Kumar, and other legislators, and in the Legislative Council by MLCs. They say that the Minister for HRD assured legislators that the government would form a committee to resolve their issues, but those promises have failed to materialise.