This is to condemn the “anti-private management attitude” of the State govt.
The federation of private college managements and employees in Karnataka has given a call for an indefinite bandh of all private colleges - aided and unaided - across the State from August 21, in protest against what they called the “anti-private management attitude” of the State government.
“We will also observe Teachers Day on September 5 as Black Day,” Basavaraj Horatti, MLC and convenor of the forum, announced at the State-level meeting of the federation members at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College in Belagavi on Saturday.
Though Mr. Horatti alleged that private managements encountered several problems whenever the Congress was in power in the State, he maintained that the federation was non-political and contained representatives from all parties, religious and caste groups. He said the federation had members and office-bearers from southern Karnataka. “We have requested them to close their institutions too. However, the impact of this bandh will not be felt greatly in south Karnataka as the proportion of private schools and college there was lesser than in the north,” he said. Students however, will not suffer as the schools and colleges will be run in the October holidays to make up for the loss of teaching hours.
According to Mr. Horatti, around 16,000 of the 1.44 lakh posts of teachers in private colleges across the State were vacant. They included 12,000 posts in colleges, around 3,000 in pre-university colleges and around 600 in primary and high schools. These are all sanctioned posts and have remained unaided after the incumbents died or retired. They have remained unfilled and unaided in the last ten years, due to the austerity measure in place since the floods of 2008-09. “We have been requesting Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to withdraw the austerity measures, but in vain. This is an election year. The iron is hot and we should strike now,” Mr. Horatti told the delegates.
“This is not even a warning. We have decided to close schools and colleges and we will do so,” Mr. Horatti later told presspersons. “We have met the Chief Minister four times till now. His response has not been forthcoming. Now we will not meet him, till he invites us.’’
‘Neglected’
Addressing the meeting, federation president and MP Prabhakar Kore said the State government’s ‘neglect’ of private educational institutions amounted to neglect of north Karnataka. That is because 70 per cent of educational institutions in north Karnataka are in the private sector. Some years ago it was over 90 per cent. “Ministers and officials do not take us seriously, when we raise issues of private managements. They think we are talking about our individual institutions. They fail to realise that we are speaking for the educational development level of north Karnataka,” he said.
He told presspersons that Finance department officials could not understand how difficult it was to run schools and non-professional colleges in small towns and villages. In towns like Chikkodi and Raibag, we have to pay high salaries to attract good teachers, while the paying capacity of parents is very less. Some private colleges have been forced to close down, he said.
Veeranna Charantimath, chairman of Bagalkot-based BVV Sangha, said the State government had enough money for non-priority projects such as steel bridges and underground tunnels in Bengaluru.
MLC Mahantesh Kavatagimath and other leaders spoke.
