The guest lecturers at government junior colleges got a big relief with the State government renewing their services with retrospective effect from June 15 when this academic year started. Last month, the government had renewed the services of about 800 guest lecturers of government degree colleges and kept on hold the decision for an equal number of lecturers till the first year admissions for degree colleges was completed.
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About 1,800 odd guest lecturers employed by the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) will get two months arrears for this year along with renewal of their service. They were also supposed to get three months of arrears for last year.
The guest lecturers, particularly in junior colleges, were a stressed lot for the past few months as the government had not taken a decision on renewal of their service nor payment of arrears of salary though the academic year had started three months ago. Since their services were not renewed, there was no question of payment of arrears of salary at least for this year.
The guest lecturers were paid ₹390 per class with a ceiling 72 classes a month. They got a maximum of ₹28,080 a month even if they taught their full quota of classes. Their livelihood had become difficult in the last eight months with the government not releasing funds to meet their salary bill.
The guest lecturers were in service for the last nine years. Their services were renewed on a yearly basis. The BIE had sought the permission of the government in May to re-engage the services of guest lecturers this year which was later approved by the finance department. However, the process was not completed in the absence of unit wise service details. The finance department asked the BIE to send fresh proposals which resulted in further delay. ,