Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Supreme Court ordered to pay Rs 1000 a lecture to guest faculties of Polytechnic Colleges in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday.
The Apex Court has also made it clear in its order that the post of new guest faculties should not be filled by already working faculties.
As many as 300 guest lecturers had filed a petition in the court against poor payment and honorarium. They were assigned all kinds of work from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
SC advocate Varun Thakur, appearing in the Supreme Court on behalf of the petitioners, said that the guest lecturers in the Polytechnic College were appointed according to the rules laid down earlier.
The condition of guest lecturers working for decades is pathetic. Keeping them under the periodical system for almost two decades, the Department of Technical Education, Madhya Pradesh has been providing honorarium in the form of wages. Besides, assign all the work (teaching, evaluation, invigilator in exams, document verification, practicals, etc) at the institution level from 10 am to 5 pm, Thakur added.
In the Madhya Pradesh cabinet meeting on January 18, 2022, the Department of Technical Education and Skill Development has decided to end the periodic system and provide a fixed honorarium of Rs. 30,000 a month. On the contrary, the officials of Education, MP are still not in favour of ending the period system, Thakur said.
Despite this, on January 27, 2022, contrary to the order issued by the Technical Education Department, an order was issued to give Rs 400 to the already working and Rs 30,000 to the guest lecturers from the new system. Non-payment of the lump sum pay scale to guest lecturers already working indicates an exploitative system, Thakur added.