05 Feb Kerala Univ Teachers Assn, gets Shri. N.Sreekantan Nair as president.
In 1968 March I joined the dept. Of geology univ of Kerala as a young lecturer. But sort of abrasive when the situation demands. Kuta all along was fighting for the UGC pay scale implementation, but the govt. was kind of near pauper state always strapped for cash. The pvt college teachers were also eager for the UGC recommended pay structure. In Spite of the political connections, loyalties and what ever they too failed in the task.
Then we in the university, not all, but some felt that if we showed a political stance, it might be easier to reach the doors and ears of the cabinet, the final authority. No one among the teachers liked a ranking congress man or a Marxist man as the out wider president.
For some reason most agreed to the name of Sreekantan Nair, a member of the syndicate and above all a person who could argue our case forcefully. Then in the general body meeting , I was elected as secretary, some time in 1969, and the gb also unanimously decided to request Sri n Sreekantan Nair to adorn the hat of president of Kuta.
Things went very well. Sri Nair agreed to our request. But some senior fellow teachers like dr. Panicker ( economics) and dr vi subramonium ( linguistics) took objection to the Nair presidency and walked out of the Assn for ever. The year went along with some requests, submission of petitions and so on.
One of the things I did remember about the Nair presidency was making of dr. Rajendran Nair, a part time lecturer in Russian dept. Of the university. The tie was between dr. Nair and another teacher in agricultural college , trivandrum. I was requested by dr Nair to go along with him to the president and member of the syndicate Sri Sreekantan Nair . We went to mla hostel rm of Sri Nair.
I made suggestion that when there is a tie between a univ teacher and member of the Kuta vice a teacher in the agricultural college , as president of Kuta, Sri Nair should see that the univ teacher gets the part time lecturers job in the Russian dept.
Interestingly exactly this algorithm worked very well and dr.nair continued teach Russian , till, I don’t know until when. Probably till dr Nair retired.
But what about the UGC scale. It came to teachers when mr. K.chandrasekaran was education minister and in ek nayanar cabinet. Dr ma ommen was the special officer to formulate the modalities for implementation. And all the teachers in the universities and colleges were very happy.
The state also had money in those days to make the political decision.
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