Members of the Association of University Teachers in the western districts of Tamil Nadu staged a protest here on Sunday to press for their charter of demands.
Around 200 faculty members from colleges in The Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Namakkal and Salem took part in the protest, which was held in Gandhipuram from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., said C. Pichandy, State vice president, AUT and Convenor, Action Programme Committee. Member of Parliament from Coimbatore, P.R. Natarajan inaugurated the fast.
He said that the protest was the latest in the series of protests the AUT had been conducting to draw the State Government’s and Chief Minister’s attention to the “failure of the government-aided college managements to follow government orders”.
It was also to highlight the “victimisation” of faculty at the hands of the Kongunadu Arts and Science College management, which, for no reason, had stopped annual increments, denied reemployment till the end of academic year to faculty who had superannuated, denied leadership positions to faculty in various departments and had been issuing memos every other day.He alleged that the college management had also failed to honour the orders of the Joint Director, Collegiate Education, Coimbatore.
Mr. Pichandy also complained that the CBM College management had “victimised” teachers by delaying the processing of pension papers of faculty who had retired, stripping off leadership positions during reemployment after superannuation, delaying process of career advancement, cutting pay during the medical leave period and not forwarding the provident fund papers to the government.He said that the protest was also to urge the State Government to take over the administration of the Chikkaiah Naicker College in Erode. The AUT also thanked the Government for issuing orders nullifying the arbitrary decision of a few aided colleges.
