Bengaluru, DHNS: The Karnataka PU Lecturers’ Association has hinted that its members might boycott the evaluation of II PUC answer scripts if their demands are not addressed.

On Saturday, the association would submit a memorandum listing its demands to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, seeking his intervention.

Association president Thimayya Purle said that one of their primary demands was that the government has to pay the lecturers full salary when they go on leave to stuidy BEd. “During a discussion, we were told that lecturers would be paid 50% of their salary. This would come up to Rs 17,000. Of this, Rs 8,000 gets deducted towards non-pension scheme and other deductions. How can anyone run a family with just Rs 9,000,” he questioned.

The state government on Thursday had announced that it would give scholarships to lecturers who have to pursue BEd. In 2013, the state government had recruited 1,763 PU lecturers. Following this, a notification was issued mandating these lecturers to have BEd degrees. The deadline given for acquiring a BEd degree was January 2017. As many as 773 lecturers are yet to get the BEd degree.

Purle told DH that the government had sanctioned leave to a batch of lecturers from 2014-15 to pursue the course. However, the other batch was asked to stay back as there was a shortage of lecturers to complete the syllabuss.

Timely promotions to lecturers is another major demand of the Association. “As many as 500 sanctioned posts of principals are vacant in PU colleges across the state. The government is not making any attempt to fill these posts. Lecturers must be promoted to these posts,” Purle said.

He said that meetings would be held in district offices of the association with regard to pay disparity. Lecturers boycotting evaluation of answer scripts is nothing new. Students and parents were a worried lot as PU lecturers had gone on strike for 18 days and boycotted evaluation work in April this year, seeking better pay.