The Telangana Human Rights Commission has given notice to the Secretary of Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education, Syed Omar Jaleel to report before the commission by September 20, following a complaint received from A Santhosh Kumar, who is the state president of Telangana School's Technical College's Employees Association. (TSTCEA).
Earlier, Santhosh Kumar had sought the intervention of the Human Rights Commission on July 17, regarding the problems faced by the lecturers. In this regard, notices were issued by the commission to the Sri Chaitanya and Narayana inter-colleges as well as to the commissioner of Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) to appear before the Human Rights Commission by September 20. The intermediate board must appear before the court and submit a report on action taken.
“Since the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the Telugu states, the eventual lockdown has resulted in the layoffs of several lecturers from the corporate colleges. Most of these employees were also not paid salaries for the period that they worked and were removed from their organisation abruptly, and many of them are still without work,” says Santhosh Kumar, speaking to The News Minute.
With the non-payment of salaries and lack of jobs, the employees resorted to striking on July 14, with the support of various student organisations in Hyderabad, during which time they were also allegedly physically assaulted by the police. This is also one of the complaints that has been registered with the Human Rights Commission. Videos regarding the assault were also submitted to the HRC, according to the TSTCEA.
Santhosh Kumar further added that several corporate colleges were collecting fees from the students, but they were not paying salaries to the employees. “When they were collecting fees, why can't they pay the salaries? Also, with the online mode of teaching, the colleges are managing with less staff and as a result, about 80-90% of employees have lost their jobs and are on the road today, struggling to survive with their families."