Karnataka’s higher education minister Dr M C Sudhakar said on Wednesday that the state government would arrive at a decision on the assistant professor postings after a hearing in Karnataka High Court scheduled for Thursday.

Dr Sudhakar met assistant professor post aspirants who are staging a protest at Freedom Park in Bengaluru seeking that they be granted postings. These lecturers are awaiting the same from 2021.

“The delay is because of the interrogation pertaining to the question paper leak case. Action has been taken against those at fault.  The CCB has also submitted a charge sheet to the court in this regard. There is no clarity on whether the investigation is complete yet. Hence the delay. We have sought an update,” said Sudhakar.

He also blamed the previous government for issuing contradictory orders about Article 371 J which allows special provisions for the Hyderabad-Karnataka region which also contributed to the delay.

Sudhakar said that the he held a discussion with chief minister Siddaramaiah and that the issue will be resolved in days.  

The protesters said that they struggled to earn their bread. While some of them claimed they quit well-paying private college jobs to prepare for these government posts, the others said that they did not have a second plan in place if this failed.

Umesh, one of the protesters rued, “We have been awaiting the announcement of the recruitment process for two years now. Our future is at stake.”  

Another protester said that despite submitting memorandums to the current and previous education minister, there was a delay in addressing the issue. Hence the protest.

However, after the meeting with the higher education minister, they have called off the protest temporarily.

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