Copyright thehindu
Aided-college lecturers affirmed that their indefinite hunger strike from December 8 would be unavoidable if the State government failed to take immediate action on their payment according to Career Advancement Scheme (CAS). Association of University Teachers (AUT) – Madurai Kamaraj, Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Mother Terasa, Alagappa, Tamil Nadu Teachers Education and Anna University Teachers’ Association (MUTA) held a press meet here on Saturday to announce their course of action towards pressing for their demands to the government. A.T. Senthamarai Kannan, general secretary, MUTA, said the primary demand for the aided-college teachers was the immediate implementation of Government Order No. 5 for CAS which granted the teachers the promotions and upgraded pay. “Though the G.O. related to appointments and CAS benefits were issued in 2021 and were gradually implemented for government college teachers in the State, all the aided college teachers were left out of the scheme,” he added. Following repeated representations, aided-college teachers from just two regions – Thanjavur and Coimbatore – were included, leaving the teachers in aided-colleges of six other regions, he noted. “Despite repeated representations, only partial implementation occurred. For the past four years, aided college teachers have received no CAS benefits, causing severe financial distress and mental agony,” he contended. A. Xavior Selvakumar, general secretary, AUT, claimed that when the AUT-MUTA representatives met the Minister for Higher Education in June, 2025, they were assured that the CAS arrears and pay benefits would be added to the July 2025 salary. “Unfortunately, the Tamil Nadu government had not honoured this assurance, and no action had been taken even up to October 2025,” he added. Further, he feared that the Tamil Nadu Private University Amendment Bill which was introduced in the State Assembly and was later kept on hold following widespread backlash, was an attempt to turn the government-aided colleges into private entities. “The amendment says that the existing norm of 100 acres of contiguous land is proposed to be reduced to 25 acres within municipal corporation limits, 35 acres within municipalities or town panchayats, and 50 acres elsewhere,” he listed. Mr. Xavior Selvakumar said that the current change of norms could be a ploy to turn all the existing aided colleges operating within 25 acres of area into private universities. “We presume that the government’s decision to hold the benefits of CAS to aided college teachers for several years had connection with its recent Private Universities Amendment bill,” he observed. In addition to urging the State government to grant the CAS benefits immediately, Mr. Periyasamy Raja, president, MUTA, said they were also insisting the government to completely abandon attempts to privatise government-aided colleges, removal of the mandatory Ph.D condition for promotion to associate professors under CAS and payment of M.Phil/PhD incentive increments to all government and aided-college teachers. “Pressing our demands we are to observe a one-day token hunger strike in Madurai, Tirunelveli and Chennai on November 6, and following a continuous sit-in protest at the Directorate of Collegiate Education in Chennai from November 12 to 14,” he added. If the demands were still unmet, he said that all the government-aided college teachers in the State would start their indefinite hunger strike from December 8.
