TRS government neglected varsities: Kodandaram

Hanamkonda: The TRS government seems to be little worried even though the universities in the State are languishing without Vice-Chancellors (V-Cs); Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) founder Prof Kodandaram said. Speaking to media persons at Kakatiya University (KU) here on Thursday, he said, when Telangana was achieved people's aspirations were high especially with regard to education and employment.

But the situation in the State is totally different. He said that it's been 15 months since the varsities were without V-Cs, however, the government is yet to initiate the process to fill the posts.

"The State government, which showed a lot of interest in passing the private universities bill by convening Assembly session, seems to have little concern over the functioning of State varsities. This is nothing but an effort to help the private varsities, owned by the TRS leaders," Prof Kodandaram said.

He said that all the varsities in the State are also grappling with staff crunch with more than half of the posts are vacant. "Only 108 are working with KU while the number of sanctioned teaching staff is 403.

There are only 354 non-teaching employees while the number of sanctioned posts is 617," the TJS chief said. The varsity is grossly dependent on contract and part-time teachers, and they too have pay problems, he added. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who is hellbent on promoting private universities, needs to understand the importance of State varsities.

It's not fair on part of KCR to destroy the State varsities on which the students belonging to SC, ST, BC and minorities were dependent, he added. Prof Kodandaram demanded the government to fill all the vacant posts in the State, announcing a timetable. He said that TJS will stage a hunger strike in Hyderabad on January 3 or 4, demanding the government to address various issues such as unemployment and education.