A section of staff members and students of Madurai Kamaraj University College here protested against the Principal on Tuesday alleging that the college administration had been indifferent to their long-pending demands.
The protesting staff members belonging to MKU College unit of Madurai Kamaraj, Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Mother Teresa and Alagappa University Teachers’ Association (MUTA) demanded the removal of Principal S. Irulappan as he “had failed” to fulfil their demands despite repeated protests over the past 10 months.
The key demands included the reinstatement of P. Raghupathy, a part-time teaching staff, who had been denied classes for the past few months.
“Even the Conveners’ Committee of MKU has recommended that he be reinstated. But the Principal is not listening,” P. Murugesan, secretary of MUTA’s MKU College unit, alleged.
The other demands included increasing the salary of temporary teaching staff to a minimum of Rs.25,000, maintaining service registers and provident fund accounts for these staff members and improving basic amenities like toilet and drinking water facilities for students.
“We conducted a series of peaceful protests at the college and also at the entrance of the university. The requests seem to have fallen on deaf ears. Now, the Principal has to go,” Mr. Murugesan said.
When contacted, Mr. Irulappan told The Hindu that the administration was willing to reinstate Mr. Raghupathy provided he withdrew a defaming complaint filed against a woman teaching staff.
“She is the head of a department and Mr. Raghupathy made a false complaint ,” he said. He said that the other demands were policy decisions which could not be conceded immediately. On calling police inside the campus during the protest, Mr. Irulappan said that it was done as a precautionary measure to ensure that nothing untoward happened.
After two hours of protest, about 30 persons were taken away from the campus by the police and released in the evening.