Guest lecturers yet to get hike in honorarium announced in the budget

Guest lecturers in government Arts and Science colleges in Tamil Nadu are still awaiting the Tamil Nadu government’s budget announcement for a hike in their honorarium. Ahead of the festival season, guest lecturers hoped that the government would take steps to remit the hike, which will be beneficial for them and their families. On August 24, while presenting the Demand for Grants for the Department, the Higher Education Minister had announced in Assembly that the honorarium for guest lecturers would be hiked by ₹5,000 to ₹35,000. In response to a couple of petitions filed recently with the CMO seeking to know the status of the announcement, the Collegiate Education Department responded that the queries have been submitted to the government for careful consideration and that the increased consolidated remuneration will be disbursed once the government order was received. There are a total of 8,741 guest lecturers employed in 181 government colleges and seven government colleges of education. If guest lectures in engineering and polytechnic colleges are included, the number goes up to 9,646.