PU lecturers call off Stir; results by May second week likely

BENGALURU: Pre-university lecturers have withdrawn their 16-day strike, raising hopes of II PUC results coming out in the second week of May, soon after the CET.

The decision came after the Karnataka State Pre-university College Teachers' Association, which represents about 18,000 lecturers, held talks with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and education minister Kimmane Rathnakar in a meeting that concluded late Tuesday evening.

The government announced a one-time hike ranging from Rs 600 to Rs 1,900 for the striking lecturers, plus an honorarium of Rs 500. “We can't give them more than this right now but we'll do something in the future,“ the CM said.

Lecturers have been protesting since April 3 demanding pay parity with degree college lecturers.

The evaluation process, which was scheduled to commence April 3, will resume in full pace from Wednesday with about 20,000 lecturers at 47 centres across Karnataka. Each lecturer will evaluate 24 answer scripts a day .

The association, however, does not see the one-time hike as the end to their demand. “We will participate in the evaluation process from Wednesday but the one-time hike is nowhere close to our demand for pay parity . We will continue to fight,“ association president Thimmaiah Purle said.